|
The Red Lodge Mountain Ski Area in the Custer Gallatin
National Forest in south central Montana resumed operations on
Sunday after skiers were told to leave the day before as a
safety precaution.
No other structures were under evacuation orders as moderating
weather conditions were expected to give fire crews the upper
hand for the first time in two days, said fire information
officer Jeff Gildehaus.
The blaze was one of several that broke out on Saturday in
southern Montana and northern Wyoming, where unseasonably warm
temperatures and winds gusting up to 60 miles an hour gave rise
to extreme fire behavior usually seen in late fall in the
Northern Rocky Mountain states, Gildehaus said.
The fire has charred 700 acres of steep, forested terrain
intersected by grasslands. While Gildehaus said that the fire
was thought to be set my people, it was unclear whether the
blaze was intentional.
Overcast skies, rising humidity and lower temperatures on Sunday
allowed crews to begin building containment lines for a blaze
that just the day before had advanced rapidly with the aid of
winds that swept burning branches and other fiery debris half a
mile in front of the fire's main flank.
More than 50 firefighters backed by five engines were on the
lookout for undetected embers that could easily be fanned by
wind gusts, Gildehaus said.
"We're on a search-and-destroy mission to find anything that's
still smoldering," he said.
Elsewhere in Montana, fire crews battled to control a blaze that
destroyed two homes after igniting on Saturday in grass- and
timber-lands west of Billings.
The cause of that fire, which has burned 3,000 acres, is under
investigation, officials said.
(Reporting by Laura Zuckerman in Salmon, Idaho; Editing by Diane
Craft)
[© 2015 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2015 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
 |
|
