HELENA – A fire that started along Holter Lake burned some RV trailers and sparked a wildland fire that burned about 2,400 acres Wednesday, an official with the state Department of Natural Resources and Conservation said.
John Grassy, a spokesman for the DNRC, said strong winds and beetle-killed trees providing fuel helped the fire spread quickly, growing from 1,200 to 1,400 acres — or 2 square miles — around 4 p.m. to roughly 3.75 square miles by evening. About 45 people were evacuated from the Log Gulch campground.
No structures or homes were threatened.
“It’s doing a good deal of spotting, crowning and torching,” Grassy said.
Fire managers, however, didn’t expect the fire to grow much overnight because the winds had died down and the humidity rose.
Lewis and Clark County Sheriff Leo Dutton said the fire was reported at about 11:30 a.m. in the area of the Indian Trails Marina on the lake 30 miles north of Helena and was burning to the northeast. He said officers were investigating the cause of the fire and one possibility is that a power line blew down.
Another was that the fire started in or near one of two RV trailers that burned, Grassy said.
State wildlife officials and the sheriff’s office said there were two hunters in the general area of the fire that could not immediately be accounted for.
Four helicopters, one heavy air tanker and one fixed-wing plane were on the fire. Two 20-member hand crews were battling the fire and four more crews were expected to arrive Thursday morning, Grassy said.
The fire was burning mostly on private land, including rugged, wooded areas that made it difficult to use engines.
Beartooth Road, which runs from Wolf Creek around the east side of the lake, was closed to all traffic except residents.