This is how bad it's gotten in the West: A
wildfire ripping through a region in Montana dotted with summer
homes burns unabated, despite being named the state's No. 1 firefighting
priority.
Some 150
dwellings have been evacuated near the south-central resort town
of Red Lodge, while the 65-mile Beartooth Highway, which winds
its way into Yellowstone National Park, has been closed.
With so many
other blazes across the West demanding firefighters' attention,
rescuers were just trying to keep the fire from consuming summer
homes, some of them $1 million estates.
"Erratic
fire behavior, steep slopes and gusty winds currently prevent
direct attack of the fire with ground personnel,'' the U.S. Forest
Service said late Monday.
In neighboring
South Dakota, flames have burned 101 square miles of the Black
Hills National Forest -- the largest in the modern history of
the forest.
Idaho's biggest
blaze remained the 182,500-acre fire in the Salmon-Challis National
Forest. Fires in the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness
prompted more evacuations at ranches Monday.
In Red Lodge,
fire information officer Jeff Gildehaus has requested 280 shovel-toting
firefighters, a strike team of 20 engines to spray water and foam,
and eight helicopters.
But even when
the manpower and equipment arrives, it may not be enough to snuff
the flames. "That's a good start but just an initial order,"
he said.
The fire was
estimated at 3,500-plus acres, relatively small in comparison
to the giant fires in southwestern Montana's Bitterroot Valley,
but it became the state's top priority because of its potential
for causing serious problems.
It was among
31 active fires on 674,000 acres Monday in Montana. Nationally,
there are 84 fires burning on 1.7 million acres. So far this year,
6.2 million acres in the United States have burned.
Fire lines
were widened Monday in the Black Hills of South Dakota, where
a blaze has consumed 64,900 acres. Gusts reached 40 mph at Rapid
City, about 25 miles northeast of the fire.
With homes
and two cities near the edges of the blaze, the fire is now the
top priority in the nation, said Bill Waterbury, incident commander
of the firefighting effort.
John Twiss,
supervisor of the Black Hills National Forest, told a public meeting
Monday night that the fire was deliberately set and authorities
have suspects.
"What's
taken God 200 years to create was wiped out in a couple of days
by what was apparently an arsonist," Gov. Bill Janklow said.
"And it just shows you what a sick world we live in nowadays."
The fire now
surpasses the 1988 Brewer Fire as the largest in the Black Hills
National Forest. The Brewer Fire covered 58,000 acres, the Forest
Service said.
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