More wildfires flare up in Montana By SARAH COOKE, Associated Press Writer

More wildfires flare up in Montana By SARAH COOKE, Associated Press Writer
15 minutes ago



HELENA, Mont. - New wildfires in Montana over the weekend added to firefighters' onerous job on Monday, and at least two of them threatened homes. Eighty homes were ordered evacuated.

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One blaze, discovered Saturday and believed to have been human-caused, had burned about 1,000 acres along Interstate 90 in western Montana southeast of Missoula. Residents of about 40 homes were asked to leave, according to fire information officials.

Farther to the southeast near Philipsburg, residents of another 40 homes were ordered to leave in advance of another new blaze that had burned about 500 acres.

A third fire in the area has been burning for more than two weeks but flared up recently, said Nick Spang, a fire information officer. Granite County authorities were prepared to evacuate as many as 100 homes threatened by the 300-plus-acre wildfire.

The fires were burning not far from the Rock Creek Lodge in Clinton, home of the Testicle Festival, a five-day bacchanalia where thousands gather to consume deep-fried bull testicles, also known as "Rocky Mountain oysters."

The 25th annual bash is set to begin Wednesday, and lodge co-owner Rodney Lincoln said he was told the fires would not affect the festival because the fires were moving away from the lodge.

"There's some smoke, but in terms of flames, compared to last night it's pretty mellow in my estimation," Lincoln said. "A little smoke isn't going to hurt us. It's not going to deter people from coming."

A huge plume of smoke was visible in Helena from a fire to the north in the Gates of the Mountains Wilderness. The fire had ballooned by nearly 8 square miles to 17.7 square miles Sunday, and was expected to keep growing Monday in similar "extreme" conditions, said Bonney McNabb, fire information officer.

Montana and Idaho each had more than a dozen fires, far more than any other state, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.

Idaho has seen far more land burned, but its biggest wildfire by far, a 1,020-square-mile blaze that at one point threatened two small towns along the Nevada line, was expected to be completely contained by Tuesday morning, said fire information officer Bill Watt. Rain last week helped crews battle the two-week-old fire, which destroyed three outbuildings and killed an unknown number of cattle.

Elsewhere, a wildfire started Sunday afternoon in eastern Michigan's Huron National Forest and damaged at least three homes before firefighters contained it at about 500 acres, police said. About 100 people were evacuated, although nearly all were allowed to return to their homes by Sunday night, said state police Sgt. Tim Gronda.

In California, a nearly month-old wildfire in Santa Barbara County that had appeared to be standing still flared up over the weekend, burning 1,500 new acres and causing an evacuation order for a dozen rural homes, authorities said.

Warm and extremely dry conditions allowed the fire to burn through old, heavy trees in the Los Padres National Forest on its uncontained southeast side.

The blaze had consumed about 33,500 acres, or 52 square miles, since it started July 4. It was 70 percent contained Monday.