By Matthew Brown
The Associated Press
BILLINGS, Mont. — Fire-stoking winds and lightning were forecast Thursday across much of the Northern Rockies as crews rushed to bolster protective lines around more than a dozen blazes that already have scorched tens of thousands of acres.
National Weather Service meteorologists warned that fire conditions would rise to critical in the afternoon and evening across almost all of Montana and a large swath of central Idaho.
More favorable conditions early Thursday allowed crews to gain ground on some blazes, including a 20,000-acre complex of fires on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation in southeastern Montana.
An estimated two dozen homes and other structures were threatened by the five wildfires comprising the Black Springs complex near Lame Deer, Mont. No evacuations had been ordered, but along state Highway 212 between Busby and Lame Deer, the speed limit was reduced from 70 to 50 mph because of limited visibility caused by smoke.
“The crews are focusing on patrolling the line and making sure it’s secure, and being prepared when there are wind activities this afternoon for potential fire movement,” said Katie Knotek, Black Springs fire information officer.
More than 350 people were working on the blaze. Knotek said more were requested but it was uncertain when or if they would come. “The region is really picking up a lot of fires, so we’re really starting to compete for resources,” she said.
Another nearby fire complex, the 16,300-acre Diamond fires burning in grass and timber south of Ashland, was threatening more than a dozen homes and outbuildings.
Bryan Henry, a meteorologist for the Northern Rockies Coordination Center, said a lot of lightning was expected Thursday and Friday over western Montana and northern Idaho, and over southwestern Montana on Saturday.
If those storms don’t produce much precipitation, new fires are likely to start.
Temperatures in those areas are expected to stay in the 90s on Thursday and Friday, which is about 10 degrees above normal for this time of year. The heat, combined with the low humidity forecast, will promote the increased fire behavior, Henry said.
In western Montana, helicopters dropped water on a 2,100-acre fire to slow its progress as it spread toward the Blackfoot River. Dozens of homes and outbuildings are threatened by the blaze, which is burning in steep, rugged terrain near Bonner.
An untimely thunderstorm Wednesday night thwarted attempts to keep a wildfire in northern Wyoming from crossing into Montana and threatening several rural subdivisions south of Red Lodge.
The fire had grown to almost 4,500 acres by Thursday as a higher level fire team took over its management. Officials said they were trying to stop the fire’s northward march into the Custer National Forest where there are some summer cabins.
Six other fires were burning elsewhere in Wyoming, including one north of Gillette that had burned about 4,000 acres. An 800-acre fire west of Dubois was fully contained early Thursday, and firefighters hoped to have a 14,485-acre fire west of Wheatland contained by afternoon.
In Idaho, fires monitored by the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise were concentrated in the north-central part of the state near the Montana border.
After lightning strikes hit the Clearwater and Nez Perce national forests, fire officials dispatched 16 smokejumpers to an eight-acre. There were at least three other new fires on the forests, all less than an acre.
Meanwhile, a 20-person crew aided by a light helicopter was keeping an eye on a 3,800-acre blaze on the remote Red River Ranger district, about 20 miles east of Elk City.
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Associated Press writers Matt Volz in Helena, Bob Moen in Cheyenne, Wyo., and John Miller in Boise, Idaho, contributed to this report.