Fire engulfs the hillside embankments near Shooters Bluff Trail in Huntley as strong sudden winds caused a panel of tin that wrapped around a tree and power lines to cause this 300-acre fire. Many different agencies responded which included at VLAT from Helena. Find more images from the fire inside this edition of Yellowstone County News. (Courtesy photo by Darcy Ness)
The 10 agencies, that included local fire departments, state and federal resources, were dispatched to respond to the now-called Buffalo Fire Friday evening in Huntley. In addition to those local and state resources, a very large air tanker, referred to as a VLAT, was dispatched from Helena, but it was only 30 minutes away from arriving on site.
Yellowstone County deputies and local neighbors were first to arrive on scene and start to assist with the fire while the local Worden and Shepherd Volunteer Fire Departments responded.
With high temperatures into the triple digits and extremely dry temperatures along with high winds prompted additional assistance calls from other agencies that were available. Local fire departments were already thin, according to Worden Volunteer Fire Chief Phil Hackman, as some of their own department fire fighters were assisting fighting other fires burning in Yellowstone and Musselshell county areas. To make matters worse, there were two other fire calls basically around the same time for the Arrow Creek and Indian Creek areas which involved the Worden Fire Department as well.
Within minutes, more fire crews from Haley Bench, Lockwood, Fuego Fire, Blue Creek and Billings fire departments were dispatched and arrived on scene as the Buffalo Bluffs area was lit up in flames now extending into the hills and changing winds towards the Shadow Canyon area.
About the same time, state and federal agencies that include DNRC, BLM, and the US Forrest Service were dispatched to bring their equipment which also included bulldozers, blades and other brush trucks to combat the quickly growing fire.
Montana Highway Patrol was dispatched to shut down Pryor Creek Road as the fire was moving quickly southeast due to shifting winds.
According to Incident Commander Bryan Francis of the Billings Fire Department, who was assigned to oversee the multi-agency response, the fire was slowed down as it traveled back toward and into part of the burn scar area from the previous Easter Fire that occurred four months earlier.
In all, it was only about 10% contained by Friday evening as many hot spots and sporadic areas could easily reignite due to dry and hot conditions, according to Bryan Francis.
Once the VLAT arrived from Helena, many passes by air were made and retardant was dropped in order to save some homes and slow the fire down. A total of five structures were burned, according to Worden Fire Chief Phil Hackman, who expressed his appreciation to all those agencies who helped including the locals.
One singlewide trailer burned completely, three shops or structures were destroyed by fire, another outbuilding as well as another little trailer were lost in the fire reaching a total of about 300 acres, according to Incident Commander Bryan Francis. More analysis and assessments were being made during the weekend cleanup to include all the other wind damage, house roofs and mobile home properties in the Huntley area.
“All in all, we’re pretty fortunate for this to only have expanded to 300 acres due to all the extreme and dry conditions as well as all the resources that were able to respond,” says Francis.
Editor’s Note: Yellowstone County News will have a follow up article reflecting on this fire and how multiple agencies were able to respond so quickly due to Governor Gianforte’s Emergency Drought Declaration that was made previously. In addition, we’ll follow up in regards to safety precautions to take and how residents in these dry and extreme conditions can help take precautionary measures to help mitigate future fires.
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