The nation’s biggest wildfire may be fully contained within a week.
According to Rick Connell, incident commander for the Lodgepole Complex fire in eastern Montana, everything is “looking pretty good.”
“We had three little pockets we were looking at for burnout today,” said Connell. “Those all were successful.”
Connell says the incident team will keep an eye on shifting winds and rising temperatures over the next few days, but that the blaze is currently 35 percent contained.
Fire managers also lifted evacuation orders for landowners in Garfield County.
Jodi Pearson is a volunteer firefighter and rancher. She say’s they’re mostly working on back burns right now, “and just trying to wrap it up, but from what we can see from here, it looks way better, much better,” said Pearson.
More than 600 people from 34 states are battling the lightning-caused grass fire, which has destroyed sixteen homes or ranches, and has burned over a quarter-million acres.
Copyright 2017 Yellowstone Public Radio
