Montana wildfire roars through town

HELENA, Mont. — A late-season wildfire that came amid unseasonably warm weather and was pushed by strong winds ripped through a tiny central Montana farming town overnight, burning 24 homes and four grain elevators that had stood for more than a century.

Officials were assessing the damage in Denton on Thursday while crews continued to fight the fire, which burned 22 square miles of prairie and agricultural land.

“Rural fire agencies are continuing to work to prevent any further spread or damage,” the Fergus County sheriff’s office posted on Facebook Thursday morning. “This work will continue for several more days.”

The nearly 300 residents of the town were evacuated early Wednesday afternoon when a fire started by a downed power line in an adjacent county the night before pushed across 6 miles of drought-stricken land.

The grain elevators near the railroad tracks caught fire first and the blaze spread into town, said Undersheriff Tracy Lewellyn.

“Unfortunately we lost numerous houses on the Southside of town, but thankfully no one was hurt!” the sheriff’s office posted Wednesday night.

The power outage due to the downed power lines shut off water pumps, leaving the town without water, officials said.

The evacuation order was lifted at noon Thursday, Lewellyn said. Only essential traffic was being allowed in the area and some residences that survived the fire were still without power. Montana 81 west of Denton was closed because a bridge was destroyed by the fire. A railroad bridge in the same area was also destroyed.