Parts of Western Montana were breathing a little easier this morning after weekend thunderstorms brought with them cooler temperatures and increased humidity. U-S Highway 12 west of Lolo has been re-opened on a limited basis after being closed yesterday due to the Lolo Peak Fire. About 30 coal cars in a Montana Rail Link freight train derailed this weekend along the Clark Fork River in northwestern Montana.

A lightning storm that blew through northwest Montana last night has firefighters scrambling from Eureka to Glacier National park. Southeast of Superior along I-90, managers of the Sunrise Fire are preparing for this weekend’s forecast red flag fire weather. The Missoula County Sheriff’s Office has expanded the evacuation warning area associated with Lolo Peak Fire.

The smoke pouring into a small Montana town from a nearby wildfire has gotten so bad that health officials are warning residents to leave the area. Firefighters working on the forty-two hundred acre Liberty Fire southeast of Arlee are employing a long-term confinement strategy. Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke will decide whether to shrink or eliminate 22 national monuments later this month. An elite 29-year-old firefighter who died in Montana last week was remembered Thursday.

A 76-person incident management team is now in charge of the Gibralter Ridge Fire east of Eureka. The same lightning storm that started Gibralter Ridge sparked at least seven small fires inside Glacier National Park. There are new evacuations for the Sunrise Fire. The Missoula City-County Health Department is now recommending that people in Seeley Lake who are able to do so leave the area until the wildfire smoke event passes.

A fast-growing fire discovered last night southeast of Eureka has prompted new evacuations in that area. Smoke columns from several fire starts caused by that storm were seen Tuesday in Glacier National Park. There is a community meeting tonight in Clinton about the Sapphire Complex of fires. At least one firefighter has been injured from the Gibraltar Ridge Fire near Eureka.

Billings attorney today announced a bid to unseat newly elected Congressman Greg Gianforte in next year's midterm race. The body of a 29-year-old California firefighter who died on the Lolo Peak Fire last week is now back home in California. The Interior Department has scrapped a rule aimed at ensuring that coal companies don't shortchange taxpayers on huge volumes of coal extracted from public lands.

Fire activity on the more than 7,200 acre Rice Ridge Fire northwest of Seeley Lake increased today as it burns into heavy stands of beetle killed trees. The Montana Department of Environmental Quality has issued an air quality alert for Granite, Lake, Mineral, Missoula, Powell, and Ravalli counties due to the numerous fires burning in west-central Montana. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke says he is not recommending changes to Arizona's Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument. Stage 1 Fire

Missoula County Sheriff and Coroner T.J. McDermott released the name of the firefighter who was killed while working on the Lolo Peak Fire yesterday afternoon. The Mineral County Sheriff's Office lifted the Evacuation Order for Sunrise Creek and Quartz Flats early this morning.

Early this afternoon a firefighter on the Lolo Peak Fire was struck by a tree and died. The Granite County Sheriff’s Office this afternoon rolled back a portion of an evacuation order in the Rock Creek drainage associated with the Sapphire Complex about 25 miles south/southeast of Missoula. Helena’s city attorney is deferring prosecution of a sheriff charged with assaulting his girlfriend during a law enforcement convention. The Mineral County Sheriff’s Office released a statement on their

There are multiple evacuation warnings due to fires in northwest Montana, and at least one mandatory evacuation order.