[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IG3bMYOZwY]
HELENA – Firefighters from the Montana DNRC, Craig and Wolf Creek responded to a small wildfire north of Wolf Creek near Montana highway 287 on Tuesday.
Officially named the Flat Creek Fire, DNRC said the fire was sparked by a lighting strike and burned 9 acres in total.
Crews have the fire completely contained and are currently in mop up operations.
High water in the nearby waterways made it difficult to access the fire and crews had to be brought in via helicopter.
Fire Management Officer John Huston said he was honestly surprised to see the fire grow as large as it did given how wet the vegetation is in the area.
Huston added that public vigilance in reporting fires is appreciated and key to making sure crew have the chance to combat them early.
“You should always call and report smoke you’re seeing in a strange place especially,” said Hutson, “Hopefully if someone is burning they’ve activated a burn permit and we can easily tell that’s a controlled fire.”
According to DNRC data Montana has had a below average fire season so far in 2018.
As of June 27, 2018 state and private lands have seen 45 fires that have burned a combined 119 acres. 69 percent of those fires were human-caused, 22 percent were lightning-caused and 9 percent were unknown as to the cause.
The five year average for this date is 69 wildfires with 2,021 acres burned.
