BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — Thousands of people living in and near the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation in southeastern Montana were ordered to evacuate ahead of a massive, wind-driven wildfire on Tuesday.
The evacuation covered about 2,000 residents of Lame Deer, where people who had fled the fire earlier in the day initially sought shelter.
Buses were being brought in to move evacuees further away, to a shelter in the town of Busby, said Northern Cheyenne emergency officials. Power was out across parts of the reservation and officials warned that cell phone service was expected to go down in many areas overnight.
Roughly 500 to 600 people living in Ashland and other areas along the reservation’s border also were ordered to leave, Rosebud County Sheriff Allen Fulton said.
By afternoon, flames were within about a quarter mile of an Amish community along the Tongue River north of Ashland, after strong winds pushed the blaze several miles over a period of a few hours, Fulton said.
Many people in the evacuation zone left; some stayed.
“We’re actually pretty worried,” Fulton said. “It’s jumping highways, it’s jumping streams. A paved road is about a good a fire line as we could ask for, and it’s going over that in spots.”
The fire of undetermined cause was discovered Sunday on private land in the Richard Spring area about 10 miles (16 kilometers) southwest of Colstrip. It quadrupled in size Tuesday, and had burned up to 250 square miles (647 square kilometers) by day’s end, officials said, making it Montana’s largest wildfire so far this year.
At the Otter Creek Saloon in Ashland, owner J.D. Just said he could see columns of smoke rising from the fire, still about six miles away from town by early evening but moving directly toward it.
Businesses were shut down and most people heeded the evacuation order, including residents from the Heritage Living Center, an assisted living facility for elders from the Northern Cheyenne tribe, Just said.
Just planned to stay to see what happens and protect his bar.
“I’m not going to let my place burn down,” he said.
Four helicopters, six bulldozers and six fire engines were being used to battle the fire, with about 130 personnel. Local landowners and private heavy equipment operators also helped, officials said.
The evacuation order included other areas: the Northern Cheyenne communities of Rabbit Town and Muddy Creek, the Amish subdivision, the St. Labre Indian School and people living along North Tongue River Road.
Staff at the St. Labre campus closed up their work areas and were told to go home and get what they needed to evacuate, said Ashley Peterson, who works for an answering service for the school. The school’s approximately 450 students were scheduled to resume classes next week.
“They’ve asked us to pray for the little community of Ashland and St. Labre,” Peterson said.
Four outbuildings were destroyed during the initial efforts to fight the fire.
Another shelter for evacuees were being set up in Broadus.
Ashland is about 45 miles (72 kilometers) north of the Montana-Wyoming border.
Two dozen large wildfires were burning across Montana Tuesday, as hot, dry conditions made it harder to fight the blazes and prevent new ones from taking hold. So far this year wildfires have destroyed 48 houses and burned more than 1,000 square miles (2,525 square kilometers).
A red flag warning for high fire danger was in effect through 10 p.m. Wednesday.
