Local fire assets responded to a number of incidents over the past several weeks. The Rock fire burned 14 acres, 30 miles south of Broadus on July 27th, and was caused by a burning coal seam. On August 1st, the Rough Creek fire burned 78 acres, 37 miles southwest of Broadus, west of Moorhead. The Bradshaw fire, in similar vicinity of the Rough Creek fire, burned 833 acres, beginning on August 4th.
The Line Creek fire burned a tenth of an acre 40 miles southwest of Broadus on August 6th. On August 7th several lightning cause fires kicked off, including the Salt Creek fire 130 acres, 17 miles southwest of Broadus, the Davidson Draw fire at 190 acres, 20 miles south of Broadus, and the Rough Spring fire, at a tenth of an acre, 37 miles southwest of Broadus.
On the 8th the Horse Creek fire started southwest of the Fort Howes Ranger Station, burning 1683 acres as of Tuesday morning. This fire prompted evacuations of dwellings along Upper Otter Creek on Monday, as high winds on the night of the 8th caused the fire to grow.
On August 9th, the Paget fire burned 3.2 acres, 15 miles south of Ashland.
Smoke blanketed much of the county on Monday, as the Richard Spring fire south of Colstrip burned nearly 63,000 acres as of Tuesday morning, prompting road closures on Hwy 39 between Colstrip and Lame Deer, as well as Hwy 212 for through traffic. Edit: As of Thursday night, the Richard Spring Fire has burned 166,053 acres, prompting evacuations of Lame Deer, Ashland, and other areas in the near vicinity of those towns. 12-18 structures are believed to have been lost. A power outage as a result of burned poles on TRECO's transmission line affected most of Powder River County, beginning Tuesday around 5 pm and lasting through Wednesday evening.
Reader Comments(0)