High Gusts Whip Up Wildfires, Causing Evacuations

Sunday, August 12th 2007, 9:23 pm

By: News On 6

SEELEY LAKE, Mont. (AP) _ People allowed back into their homes near this western Montana resort town earlier in the weekend were told Sunday to leave again as winds whipped up a wildfire that threatened about 1,500 structures.

The 30-square-mile Jocko Lakes fire was one of numerous blazes around the country, among them a Wyoming wildfire that forced officials to close one of the five major entrances to Yellowstone National Park.

Winds drove the Montana fire eastward, but a fire information officer said crews were holding their own.

``For the most part, firefighters have been successful holding and defending the fire lines,'' Jennifer Yuhas, a spokeswoman for the agencies fighting the blaze, said late Sunday afternoon. ``They haven't lost any lines yet.''

Yuhas couldn't say how many people had to evacuate for a second time Sunday.

The town of Seeley Lake itself has not been evacuated, but hundreds of people in outlying areas have. The town has a summer population of about 5,000.

The flames outside Yellowstone threatened a road leading into the park, and authorities weren't sure how long it would stay closed, National Park Service spokesman Al Nash said.

``The fire has increased dramatically in size this afternoon because of the high gusty winds,'' Nash said.

The fire was started by lightning last Thursday and grew to about 18 square miles Sunday. It had been estimated at 4 square miles Saturday.

In north-central Idaho, two cabins and a large outbuilding burned as wind-whipped flames flared 200 feet high. No injuries were reported, but firefighters struggled to protect buildings in the tiny mountain towns of Warren and Secesh.

The Zena/Loon fire has been marching toward Warren for more than a week, and skipped over two fire lines, a river and a road to get there.

``It just jumped over containment lines like they weren't even there,'' said Robin Cole, the public information officer for the fire.

In Michigan's marshy eastern Upper Peninsula, a 28-square-mile fire was half-contained Sunday, but officials warned that an expected shift in winds could give the blaze fresh life.

That fire, burning since Aug. 2, is also believed to have been started by lightning.