Montana Wildfire News

On Tuesday morning the National Park Service confirmed that seven private residences, a number of outbuildings and several Park-owned historic structures were consumed when the lightning-ignited Howe Ridge Fire made a wind-fueled run Sunday night.

Updated 5:25 p.m. The Flathead County Sheriff’s Office has issued an evacuation warning for a small number of residents near Essex just northwest of the Izaak Walton Inn along Highway 2 due to the Paola Ridge Fire .

Eric Whitney: Nikki You're in West Glacier where the people were evacuated from the Howe Ridge Fire are getting new details about the fire and its impacts. Nicky Ouellet: Yeah Eric I'm at the park headquarters in West Glacier. There are about 70 people here. There were park staff including superintendent Jeff Mow on hand to describe the firefighters' efforts to quell the flames and then kind of walk through what homeowners themselves thought as the fire made a run toward some of their homes and

Update 4:58 p.m. The Highway 37 Fire that was threatening the former WR Grace asbestos mine north of Libby is now 100 percent contained. Shawn Ray-Delmas, a spokesperson for the Kootenai National Forest, says the wildfire was fully contained a few days before an official announcement was made Monday.

Update 5:22 p.m. Officials in Glacier National Park now say that, “a number of structures were lost last night” in the Howe Ridge wildfire that was sparked by lighting Saturday. They estimate the size of the fire on the north end of Lake McDonald at 1,500 to 2,500 acres and have offered no estimate of containment. A press release says two water scooping aircraft are drawing water from Lake McDonald and, along with a helicopter are “working to establish a secure anchor point from which to fight

Update 6:25 p.m. A new wildfire was reported at about 3 p.m. about 7 miles west of the town of Plains, just off of Highway 200.

The people evacuated from one house due to the Garden Creek Fire north of Hot Springs yesterday were allowed to return today. Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribal Fire Prevention Specialist CT Camel says crews burned around the house at the bottom of 5,000 Road, put a line around it and dropped retardants. The fire (the biggest currently burning in Montana) was last reported to be just over 2,000 acres after it grew substantially from 524 acres Tuesday.

Missoula’s Mount Sentinel will be closed starting at 8 o’clock Monday morning due to elevated fire risk during the sold out Pearl Jam concert at the University of Montana Washington-Grizzly Stadium.

A wildfire burning north of Hot Springs on the Flathead Reservation grew substantially over the past 24 hours, leading to the evacuation of one home. The Garden Creek Fire is now listed at over 1,840 acres. According to Confederated Salish and Kootenai tribal fire prevention specialist CT Camel, that’s a 1,300-acre growth spurt since yesterday.

Congressman Greg Gianforte was in Montana Tuesday talking about wildfire . The Republican was in Hamilton holding a field hearing which started on an unusual note.