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September, 20000
Bond set for two men in arson case

 THOMPSON FALLS – Sanders County Justice of the Peace Bob Beitz Friday set bond at $100,000 each for two Plains men suspected of deliberately setting or attempting to set five wildfires in the Plains area during the height of August’ s fire danger in western Montana. See more of the story...

A Sikorsky Sky Crane loads water at Greenough Lake Thursday afternoon. The copter can carry 1400 gallons which it loads through a siphon hose in about 40 seconds.

Firefighter from the Flathead Hot Shots based in Hungry Horse MT board a helicopter to reach a remote area of the Willie fire Thursday afternoon.

Flames engulf trees just south of Pointed Rock in Willie fire near Red Lodge.

The fire cache at the smokejumper center in Missoula, Mont., stocks supplies for firefighters around the country, has been hard-hit itself because of the long and severe fire season this summer. Montana's two big supply centers for the thousands of people trying to quell wildfires in the state are nearly bare, after a month of unprecedented demand.

Friday September 1^st rain helps, supply shortages hurt firefighting effort

BILLINGS (AP) – Rain dampened some areas of Montana on Friday, giving firefighters a further break from dry conditions that helped sustain the state’s wildfire crisis for weeks. See more of the story...

Taking the fire in stride
Fire boss reports 2 productive days of work on Willie

RED LODGE – After nearly a week of alarms, fears, smoke and fires, the weather was perfect in Red Lodge Friday: Dawn brought clear blue skies, and by late afternoon a cloudburst was dropping rain on the 1,500-acre Willie fire.  See more of the story...

Firefighters begin a long hike into steep terrain to battle the Willie fire in the Custer National Forest Friday, Sept. 1, 2000, near Red Lodge, Montana. The forest service has reported 25% containment of the blaze, but keep a watchful eye for unfavorable weather conditions which could drive the fire near the town of Red Lodge.

A firefighter waits as a helicopter approaches to land in the Custer National Forest Friday, Sept. 1, 2000, near Red Lodge, to take hotshot crews to fire lines that are inaccessible on foot.

Willie Fire 60% Contained
 
The 7-day-old Willie fire south of Red Lodge is expected to be contained by Wednesday. While rainfall was minimal Friday night in Red Lodge, high humidity and cooler temperatures helped firefighters contain 60 percent of the fire by 9 p.m. Saturday, according to fire information specialist Lloyd Brown.  See more of the story...

Interagency firefighter Alfred Sanchez, of Denton, Tex., catches forty winks on a box of shovels during a break while fighting the Willie forest fire near Red Lodge, Montana, Saturday, Sept. 2, 2000.

Willie Fire Fading; Eastern Montana Fires Contained

Firefighters and weather made Sunday a day of rest for wildfires in the region. Two blazes in Eastern Montana were declared 100 percent contained. The Willie fire south of Red Lodge was 80 percent contained Sunday at 7 p.m. – up from 60 percent the day before.   See more of the story...

Tuesday morning western wildfire update

Firefighters contained two additional fires and the weather forecast
continues to be favorable: A upper level trough of low pressure over Central
Oregon will bring continued cool temperatures with a threat of showers to
Northern California, Great Basin and Northern Rockies.  See more of the story...

Willie fire contained; top crews move on 

Ten days after a motorcycle crash started a wildfire that threatened homes near Red Lodge, firefighters have declared the blaze contained. The 1,500-acre fire was surrounded by fire lines by mid-afternoon Tuesday. The official announcement came at 6 p.m. at the end of the shift.  See more of the story...

Firefighters begin returning home

Firefighters are leaving Montana by the planeload as officials begin demobilizing from the worst fire season in decades.  See more of the story...

Wildfires subsiding, but normal life remains elusive for some Montanans

Montana’s summer of fire is winding down, but for Charlotte Zikan, it will be a long time until she can settle into life as she knew it before flames destroyed her house.   See more of the story...

Former tennis star Mats Wilander’s home is under construction near Sun Valley, Idaho. It was required to have a pond for fire protection.

Living on disaster's doorstep

Gary Lindstrom thinks he can stop a wildfire with a piece of paper. The Summit County, Colo., commissioner might be right.  After all, a handful of similar papers have stopped torrential waters from flooding homes on the mighty Mississippi, have stopped hurricanes from blasting houses off their Florida foundations, have stopped earthquakes from shaking buildings into California rubble.  See more if the story...

Women under fire: 'Fighting fires can be a very rewarding experience'

The first wildfires of the 21st century are now a closed chapter in the history pages of Montana with restrictions coming down to Level II. Yet the public is destined to remember the efforts of the valiant men and women who worked 16 to 17 hours a day keeping the fires at bay.  See more of the story...

A pair of cow elk stand in a river as flames light up the hillside behind them on Aug. 6 near Sula. Fire behavior analyst John McColgan took the photo from a bridge over the Bitterroot River. The photo, with no credit line, now anchors the photo gallery on a fire information Web page. “I just happened to be in the right place at the right time,” McColgan said Thursday from his home in Fairbanks, Alaska, where the Missoulian tracked him down.

Firefighter's photo gets a life on the web

It’s a jaw-dropping shot.

A pair of cow elk stand up to their bellies in river water, backlit by a ball of flame and a hillside engulfed in forest fire. If you’ve got e-mail, you may have seen it in the past couple of days, as the photo spreads across the Internet faster than the wildfire it depicts.   See more of the story...

First kiss of winter - Forecasted snow, record lows place final stamp on fires Freshly fallen snow begins to coat trees blackened by the Willie Fire.

A group of deer nuzzles as the first snow of the season falls along Rock Creek south of Red Lodge Thursday morning.

Firefighters from the Bitterroot Hotshot crew pile dirt against a freshly cut burned tree along Laird Creek near Conner on Friday. The crew was working to establish water breaks in the heavily burned area to stem erosion after the loss of ground cover.

Charred logs used to prevent soil erosion in scorched valley

Workers felling trees burned by summer wildfires in this part of Montana are transforming them into resources to help the land.  The blackened logs are strategically placed against dead snags, then anchored in place with dirt and wooden stakes.  Slowly and methodically, workers repeat the task. Eventually, a hillside is covered with their handiwork, and a system of water breaks has been created.  See more of the story...

Firefighters were on their guard as more windy weather threatened to worsen wildfires that already had turned hundreds of thousands of acres of forest to ash.

Oregon firefighter Brad Washa looks on as a helicopter drops water on a hot spot of a wildfire in the Sage Basin in Montana.

The Promise.