BILLINGS — Fire officials said Tuesday there was no containment in sight for a western Montana wildfire that has grown to 6 square miles and prompted an evacuation order for hundreds of houses west of Hamilton.
With flames from the Sawtooth Fire reaching into inaccessible canyons where there’s little chance to fight them, a Forest Service official said Tuesday it is likely to burn until the snow falls.
Crews are scrambling to shore up a containment line hastily dug around the blaze Monday, when gusting winds pushed the fire toward an estimated 400 homes.
Sawtooth Fire spokesman Gregg DeNitto with the U.S. Forest Service says there was no word on when residents might return. The fire exploded over the last two days from just over 1 square mile to more than 6, although no houses were reported lost.
“Most of the structures are still a half-mile to a mile from the fire’s edge,” DeNitto said. He said that only a couple residents had spent the night at a Red Cross shelter set up in Hamilton for evacuees.
The National Weather Service issued a red flag warning across much of the Northern Rockies through Tuesday evening. The service said a combination of gusting winds and low humidity levels would make it easier for new fires to catch hold and spread.
That marked the third day in a row of challenging conditions on the Millie Fire 20 miles south of Bozeman, which is threatening the city’s water supply and ten commercial buildings. Fire spokeswoman Jennifer Myslivy said the flames were stopped for now at the top of a ridge over South Cottonwood Canyon, sparing adjacent areas that serve as Bozeman’s watershed.
The fire was reported at 45 percent contained. Myslivy said authorities hoped to ratchet that figure up Tuesday amid cooler temperatures that could help calm the blaze.
Crews elsewhere in Montana were fighting several new fires sparked when lightning passed through Monday.
That includes the Allen Fire that threatened 25 homes in the Delphia Pines subdivision about 16 miles east of Roundup and the Dutch fire threatening three houses in a rural area 30 miles southwest of Broadus.