Massive fires threaten reservations
LAME DEER, MONT. – Two massive fires located on and near the Northern Cheyenne Reservations are rampaging across southeastern Montana. As of Friday, September 4, 2010 the Rice and Snider Fires north of Ashland, Montana (perimeter of the Northern Cheyenne Reservation) had burned nearly 44,000 acres with zero percent containment. In addition, the Sarpy Creek Fire on both the Crow (27,000 acres) and Northern Cheyenne (20,000 acres) reservations had. consumed an additional 50,000 acres, somewhat, but not totally contained, the area under a “red flag” warning until at least Sunday, September 6th, when cooler temperatures and precipitation are forecasted. Predicted high temperatures, low humidity and high wind gusts are challenging efforts by firefighting crews (BIA, local government, tribal agencies and local rancher volunteers) to contain and control the blazes which erupted on Wednesday, September 2, 2020. “It’s an all-out effort by everybody” said regional BIA fuels specialist, Bob Jones.
The Sarpy Fire apparently started at one of the coal mines on the Crow Reservation, but high winds enabled it to quickly move across country, that rugged terrain now posing particular challenges to firefighting efforts.
The Rice Fire is located six miles north of Ashland and the Snider 20 miles north of Ashland running along the Tongue River and Tongue River Road. Management of those fires is under the State Department of Natural Resources and Conservation which is coordinating closely with State, local and local firefighters. As a result of the uncontained fires, the town of Ashland was temporarily evacuated and Highway 212 temporarily closed, primarily because of dense smoke which made driving hazardous. Local residents, even as far away as Billings reported ash the size of snowflakes, driven by high winds across a huge area of southeastern Montana.
The Sarpy Fire caused a partial and temporary evacuation of Busby as well and Highway 212 road closures, though to date no structures have been threatened. That evacuation has been lifted. Tribal ranchers leasing range units on tribal lands in the Busby area battled the blaze around the clock, gaining some containment, however several cattle and haystacks were lost to the fires. That represents a huge loss to cattle operators, especially this year, hay imported at great cost due to low local hay production. Fortunately, no human injuries from any of these fires have been reported.
The BIA is operating a base camp near Busby, Montana to resupply firefighters, closed to the public because of the prevalent COVID threat on both the Northern Cheyenne and Crow Reservations. Also because of COVID, neither Crow nor Northern Cheyenne firefighters are actively fighting the fires but will soon be called to function as ground crews.
Governor Bullock has placed the entire State of Montana under a fire emergency status and requested assistance from FEMA as fires also burn in other parts of the State.
(Clara Caufield can be reached at acheyennevoice@gmail.com)
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September 11, 2020