Woods Creek Fire

The 150,000-acre Richard Spring Fire burning south of Colstrip across the Northern Cheyenne reservation is 15 percent contained as of Wednesday afternoon.Evacuations are in place for Ashland, Lame Deer, North Tongue River, Highway 212, Rabbit Town, St. Labre campus and the Amish community.

In Meagher County Sunday an evacuation order was issued and then lifted for residents in the Grassy Mountain area due to the Woods Gulch Fire burning 16 miles northeast of Townsend. A section of Highway 12 was also briefly closed. As of 6:30 p.m., those evacuation orders, which had been issued an hour-and-a-half earlier., were rolled-back to a pre-evacuation warning. Highway 12 was also re-opened.

A mandatory evacuation order is in effect in the Finley Point area east of Polson due to the Boulder 2700 Fire. The fire has jumped Highway 35, which was closed to southbound traffic at Blue Bay around 2 a.m. As of 4 a.m. Sunday the mandatory evacuation orders include the Skidoo Lane and Finley Point areas, and from mile marker 6 through mile marker 12 on Highway 35. People south of mile marker 6 should be prepared to evacuate.

The 53,000 acre Poverty Flats Fire is threatening more than 1,240 homes around Big Horn County. It’s also threatening infrastructure, utilities and roads in the area.