West Fork Fire

 A forest fire broke out yesterday near the intersection of West Fork Road and Ski Run Road.  We were driving back from Billings yesterday and saw the smoke from about 15 miles out.  It is very unusual to have forest fires in March, since most of the time it's still cold and the ground is covered with snow at this time of year.  But this winter has been anything but normal, it has been very warm through most of the winter.


As we got closer to Red Lodge, we got more and more concerned.  We could tell that the fire was very close to the new house.  As we drove by the Fire Department, the first trucks were leaving for the fire.  At that point, we were allowed to go up to the house.  For a few hours, we watched the Fire Department and Forest Service bring in the trucks to attack the fire.

It was difficult to tell where the fire started yesterday afternoon.  At points we couldn't see Ski Run Road, which is less than one half mile away, but we could occasionally see flames heading north towards Red Lodge Mountain. We later found out the fire started about a half a mile from the house.

The Fire Department jumped right on it and got the fire contained within five or six hours.  The wind was gusting to 65 miles an hour and the fire quickly covered 600 acres.  We left to get lunch and the emergency personnel wouldn't let us go back to the house for a few hours.  The road to Red Lodge Mountain was also shut down, so the skiers had to stay on the mountain.