Crews gain on Montana fires; weather forecast bad

BILLINGS — Crews facing adverse weather forecasts rushed to bolster protective lines around blazes that have scorched tens of thousands of acres in the Northern Rockies, while firefighters in Oregon worked to corral a range fire that forced a kids' science camp to evacuate.

Meteorologists warned that fire conditions would rise to critical Thursday afternoon and evening as thunderstorms roll across Montana, central Idaho and northwest Wyoming.

The pattern of hot, dry weather and afternoon storms was expected to recur daily for at least several more days, keeping the fire risk high.

The FortBelknap Initial Attack crew works the Black Springs Complex fireperimeter near Lame Deer, on Wednesday. A lightning-causedwildfire fueled by hot, dry weather and gusty winds grew by thousands ofacres overnight and threatened homes on the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation, fire officials said.

"That can cause a lot of problems for firefighters," said National Weather Service meteorologist Joe Lester. "Any time you have storms, it's not just the lightning that's the problem, it's the wind they're producing. It's going to be an issue we have to keep watching through the weekend and into early next week."

In central Oregon, a lighting storm started about 150 fires, one of which has grown to 10,000 acres. About 55 children and a dozen staff members were forced to leave the Hancock Field Station outside Fossil, Ore., because of the blaze Wednesday night.

The camp staff was prepared and took the kids to a campground outside Fossil, where they spent the night in tents, said Andrea Middleton, spokeswoman for the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry.

The kids are to camp out at another campground Thursday night, then return to Hancock on Friday.

Crews gained ground on some blazes Thursday, including a 20,000-acre complex of fires on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation in southeastern Montana.

An estimated two dozen homes and other structures were threatened by the five wildfires comprising the Black Springs complex near Lame Deer, Mont. No evacuations had been ordered, but along state Highway 212 between Busby and Lame Deer, the speed limit was reduced from 70 to 50 mph because of limited visibility caused by smoke.

Black Springs fire information officer Katie Knotek said crews were focused on strengthening the protective line around the fire, but were prepared to go on the attack if wind revives the blazes or lightning sparks new ones.

More than 350 people were working on the blaze. Knotek said more were requested but it was uncertain when or if they would come. "The region is really picking up a lot of fires, so we're really starting to compete for resources," she said.

Another nearby fire complex, the 16,300-acre Diamond fires burning in grass and timber south of Ashland, was threatening more than a dozen homes and outbuildings.

Bryan Henry, a meteorologist for the Northern Rockies Coordination Center, said lightning was expected Thursday and Friday over western Montana and northern Idaho, and over southwestern Montana on Saturday.

If those storms don't produce much precipitation, new fires are likely to start.

Temperatures in those areas are expected to stay in the 90s on Thursday and Friday, which is about 10 degrees above normal for this time of year.

In western Montana, helicopters dropped buckets of water on a 2,100-acre fire to slow its progress as it spread toward the Blackfoot River. Dozens of homes and outbuildings are threatened by the blaze, which is burning in steep, rugged terrain near Bonner.

An untimely thunderstorm Wednesday night thwarted attempts to keep a wildfire in northern Wyoming from crossing into Montana and threatening several rural subdivisions south of Red Lodge.

The fire had grown to almost 4,500 acres by Thursday as a higher level fire team took over its management. Officials said they were trying to stop the fire's northward march into the Custer National Forest where there are some summer cabins.

Six other fires were burning elsewhere in Wyoming, including one north of Gillette that had burned about 4,000 acres. An 800-acre fire west of Dubois was fully contained early Thursday, and firefighters hoped to have a 14,485-acre fire west of Wheatland contained by afternoon.

In Idaho, fires monitored by the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise were concentrated in the north-central part of the state near the Montana border.

After overnight lightning strikes, Idaho's Salmon-Challis National Forest reported at least six new fires Thursday.

"Most of them are pretty remote," said Jesse Bender, a spokeswoman. "They're all small in size so we're staffing them to get them put out as quickly as possible."

Some 55 firefighters in Idaho and another 119 firefighters in Montana's Bitterroot National Forest remain engaged on a 32-square-mile fire that started Aug. 10 along the states' border. The blaze is burning in steep terrain that hasn't been hit by fire in more than a century.

And after lightning strikes hit the Clearwater and Nez Perce national forests, fire officials dispatched 16 smokejumpers to a one-square-mile blaze. There were at least three other new fires on the forests, all less than an acre.

Meanwhile, a 20-person crew aided by a light helicopter was keeping an eye on a 3,800-acre blaze on the remote Red River Ranger district, about 20 miles east of Elk City.

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Associated Press writers Matt Volz in Helena, Bob Moen in Cheyenne, Wyo., and John Miller in Boise, Idaho, contributed to this report.