FORT BELKNAP — Authorities ordered evacuations on Tuesday for several remote communities in northcentral Montana as strong winds propelled a large wildfire toward inhabited areas.
The mandatory evacuation covered Lodge Pole, a town of about 300 people on the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation, and the former mining town of Zortman, which has about two dozen people, KOJM reported.
Law enforcement officers planned to go door to door asking residents to leave, the Phillips County Sheriff’s office said on social media. Evacuees were told to go to the old National Guard Armory in Malta, about 45 miles (72 kilometers) away.
The evacuations came after the Pine Grove Fire northeast of Hays burned almost 8 square miles (20 square kilometers) of timber and short grass since it was first reported Monday.
An evacuation order for the town of Fort Belknap was lifted after a fire that threatened it on Monday was brought under control by firefighters.