The 2018 fire season has cost the state $6.7 million as of the end of November, according to the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation. That’s significantly under the state’s average fire bill of around $20 million over the last decade.

A study released this week finds new wildfire resistant homes cost roughly the same as more traditional home construction . The finding is potentially significant given growing public awareness as fire seasons lengthen and mega-fires, like California's devastating Camp Fire, increasingly displace people from their homes. One-third of American homes are now located in the wildland-urban interface , that zone where homes are built near, or in, undeveloped wildlands susceptible to fire.

The fires raging in California, and one continuing to smolder in Glacier National Park, have managers in Whitefish thinking about how people in town can prepare for the worst. More than 70 people came to the Wildfire In The City forum, hosted by Climate Smart Glacier Country on Wednesday. Speakers showed old images and newspaper clippings detailing the area’s historic burns and city staff talked about the challenges Whitefish faces.

Like thousands of tourists, businesses and locals, wildfire altered plans for some 40 artists participating in a residency program hosted by Kalispell’s Hockaday Museum of Art last summer.

Fourteen firefighters and a helicopter are working a wildfire burning about 2.5 miles northeast of Arlee this evening. Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribal fire spokesman CT Camel says the 145-acre Rhebein Fire started Tuesday when a homeowner’s routine debris burn got out of control.

As Montana's fire season winds to a close, crews are closing-in on the handful of fires still burning across Western Montana.

Montana’s wildfire season is slowing down and trending well below average in the number of fires, acres burned and cost to the state. The forecast of the state’s 2018 fire bill is only a sliver of the cost of last year’s historic fire season, according to a report from legislative researchers published Wednesday .

Federal land managers are planning controlled burns in the Bitterroot and Blackfoot Valleys. The Bitterroot National Forest is planning to start prescribed burning projects as early as this week, depending on weather. Fire managers plan to burn 2,200 acres this fall.

All Stage 1 and Stage 2 fire restrictions have been lifted across northwest Montana. Put simply, that means campfires and outdoor smoking is allowed again. Restrictions have also been lifted on operating equipment.

A new wildfire burning on western Montana’s Flathead Reservation serves as a good reminder that the 2018 fire season still has some life in it. The nearly 1,100-acre Rattlesnake Fire is burning about 10 miles northeast of Hot Springs.