High winds pushed a fire in Stillwater County at the base of the Beartooth Mountains to an estimated 3,000 to 5,000 acres as of Tuesday afternoon.
The fire prompted the Stillwater County Sheriff’s Office to urge an evacuation of residents in the Fiddler Creek Road area near Absarokee. A wind advisory was in effect for nearly all of Montana, with winds in some areas blowing with the force of a hurricane.
“Right now, we’ve got firefighters, engines and dozers working to get ahead of the fire,” said Absarokee Volunteer Fire Rescue Department Chief Amanda Ferster near the fire’s edge at West Rosebud Road.
Crews responded to the fire late Monday night, Ferster said, and since then no injuries have been reported nor major structures destroyed. The fire is burning through rugged terrain and dense timber, and carried by winds from the west. A light spot of precipitation helped stall some of the fire’s spread overnight, she said.