Smoke prompts air quality alert for southwest Montana

HELENA (AP) — Smoke of wildfires fouled the air in southwest Montana as firefighters continued battling dozens of fires in the western half of the state.

Cooler temperatures on Saturday helped some, but most fires remained active thanks to erratic winds and little moisture.

The Montana Department of Environmental Quality issued an air quality alert for counties in the southwest part of the state, including Missoula, because of smoke from large fires burning in western Montana forests and grasslands.

Fires are burning in Glacier National Park and the Beaverhead-Deerlodge, Bitterroot, Helena, Kootenai and Flathead national forests and elsewhere.

The state's biggest fire has burned nearly 21 square miles in Glacier.

More experienced firefighting teams were taking over management of several fires that began in the last few days.