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Kootenai Forest Fire Grows 1,200 Acres Overnight

Storm sparks new fires in Lincoln County

By Justin Franz
Davis Fire near Yaak. Photo courtesy of InciWeb.

This story was last updated on Aug. 11. Click here for the latest wildfire news from Northwest Montana.

—Davis Fire explodes to 1,700 acres near Yaak

—At least eight new fires start on the Kootenai National Forest

—West Glacier hits 100 degrees for the first time in recorded history

A fire deep in the northwest corner of the Kootenai National Forest exploded from 380 acres to more than 1,700 acres late Friday.

The lightning-caused Davis Fire had been burning northwest of Yaak since last month and was 25 percent contained before exploding late Friday. As of Saturday night it was 5 percent contained. The fire had spread into a remote section of British Columbia.

A public meeting about the fire will be held at the Yaak Fire Station on Sunday, Aug. 12 at 5 p.m.

A lightning storm on Saturday sparked at least eight new fires on the Kootenai National Forest, a number of them in the area of the Ten Mile Fire, which had burned 665 acres as of Saturday. Most of the new fires were less than an acre, but one of them, the Lynx Fire, had torched 20 acres near Troy.

Record-breaking temperatures over the last few days have fueled a number of fires across the region. The Garden Creek Fire near Hot Springs was listed at 2,052 acres as of Saturday morning. The Brownstone Fire in the Bob Marshall Wilderness was 1,415 acres as of Saturday evening. The Weeksville Fire started Friday as a house fire near Plains had spread to 51 acres on Saturday.

The heat wave that has been baking much of Northwest Montana continued into Saturday. In West Glacier, the mercury hit a record-breaking 100 degrees, breaking the previous record of 99 back in 1969 and 1990.

This story will be updated when additional information becomes available.