HELENA – Residents and firefighters alike welcomed much improved weather conditions that considerably calmed western Montana wildfires that had grown wildly over the previous few days.
However, fire officials cautioned that conditions were expected to become more favorable for active fire early in the coming week.
“These things are not in any way over with; we’ll be dealing with them for a while,” fire spokesman Gregg DeNitto said Saturday.
A fire burning on Glacier National Park’s southern boundary near the town of Essex stayed relatively in check despite strong winds Friday.
The fire is located in the Great Bear Wilderness about 2 ½ miles south of Essex, where about 100 area residents have been told to be prepared to evacuate, and about a half mile from U.S. Highway 2.
But as of Saturday morning, no evacuations were ordered and conditions allowed the reopening of the highway to traffic with pilot car escorts over one 9-mile stretch closest to the fire. At one point, a 55-mile stretch of the highway was closed.
DeNitto said the improved weather conditions might allow firefighters to get some work on the ground against the fire this weekend. Conditions and the rough terrain had limited firefighting efforts to mostly aerial water and retardant drops.
But while the residents in the Essex area were not in any immediate threat of evacuation Saturday morning, DeNitto said people shouldn’t let their guard down.
“Even with I’ll say what appeared to have been favorable conditions with the cool temperatures and the rain, they really need to remain prepared to evacuate if that becomes necessary,” he said. “We can’t be complacent yet.”
Elsewhere in Montana, the situation was similar with light winds expected Saturday and Sunday. The greatest immediate hazard was smoky air throughout the region.
Crews on Saturday were able to get more direct work on two large fires that have burned about 41 square miles in the Flathead National Forest, fire spokesman Al Koss said.
“I doubt we’ll have the big runs that we had in the last few days because of the winds subsiding,” Koss said.
Fire managers also reported limited growth on nine fires burning on either side of the Idaho-Montana border where people in about 50 homes near Noxon on the Montana side were ordered to evacuate Wednesday and Thursday.