Wind Pushes Wildfire Into Montana Subdivision

Thursday, August 16th 2007, 6:11 pm

By: News On 6

FRENCHTOWN, Mont. (AP) _ High winds pushed a wildfire out of the forest and into a cluster of about 60 homes west of Missoula on Thursday, fire officials said. There was no immediate information on the condition of homes.

The fire had burned at least 850 acres, though firefighters said that was a conservative estimate. Crews were dispatched to determine the condition of the homes. There were no immediate reports of injuries.

``The winds were really gusty,'' said Paula Rosenthal, a fire information officer. ``We really had growth on this fire basically in every direction.''

Between 100 and 120 homes were under an evacuation order for the entire area.

Nearly 120 firefighters were working the blaze, and fire officials hoped to get more crews Friday. Two water-dropping helicopters were also in the air working to douse flames.

More than a dozen large wildfires burned in Montana on Thursday. One burned to the northern edge of the Teton Pass Ski Area. The fire, in the Lewis and Clark and the Flathead national forests, had blackened 42,614 acres, or about 66 square miles, and none of the blaze was contained, fire information officer Rebeca Franco said.

``People will drive up there and see burned trees'' this winter, said Jonathan Stoltz, an owner in the ski area. ``It's going to hurt business.''

In Wyoming, a historic lodge built by ``Buffalo Bill'' Cody more than a century ago was in the path of a spreading wildfire outside of Yellowstone National Park on Thursday.

The last guests evacuated Tuesday from Pahaska Tepee Resort, three miles east of the park. Large sprinklers were set up around the smoke-choked resort, and firefighters covered the edges of the original Buffalo Bill lodge with heavy foil.

The lodge, built in 1904 by William F. Cody, is on the National Register of Historic Places and is now part of the resort. The flames were about three miles away on Thursday afternoon.

The forecast called for lower temperatures and lighter wind, but the wildfire was expected to keep growing eastward toward the resort. The fire, started by lightning Aug. 9, has blackened about 17,000 acres, more than 26 square miles.

Nearly all the resort's staff left Wednesday, and co-owner Angela Coe said she expected to evacuate soon.

``This is a whole different deal from the other fires in that the other fires, they had a lot of helicopters and a lot of resources fighting it,'' Coe said. ``This one, they haven't had a lot of resources.

``Now it's really big. But it's a little late for our area, I think,'' she said.

Fire information officer Jill Cobb said that 167 people were fighting the fire in different ways, and that more crews were expected. She acknowledged that people and equipment have been slow coming.

``Though this is a high priority, there are a lot of high priorities across the West right now,'' she said.

Four other fires were burning around Yellowstone but didn't threaten to close any roads or facilities.

Cody was a prospector-turned-Pony Express rider and Civil War veteran who later hunted buffalo to feed railroad construction crews. According to legend, he earned the name Buffalo Bill in a daylong shooting match with a hunter named William Comstock, presumably to determine who deserved the title.

Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm on Thursday issued a ban on outdoor burning for 75 of the state's 83 counties, the first such ban since 1998.

``The persistent drought conditions across Michigan's Lower and Upper Peninsulas, coupled with the hot, dry weather, are creating dangerous conditions for wildfires to occur,'' Granholm said in a statement.

Crews in Michigan's Upper Peninsula have been fighting a blaze in Luce County since early August. On Thursday, it covered 18,680 acres, or 29 square miles, and was 62 percent contained.

In Southern California, a 127,244-acre wildfire burning in the Santa Barbara County wilderness was about eight miles from the Ventura County line, slowly moving northeast. No homes or buildings were threatened. The fire, burning in the Dick Smith Wilderness and Los Padres National Forest, was 63 percent contained.