SPOKANE, Wash --- Montana wildfires are burning across the state and causing hardships for many of the people in their areas, here is the latest information for western Montana wildfires.
---The Caribou fire is in Kootenai National Forest near the Idaho-Canada border, about 18 miles northwest of Eureka, Mont. It is burning 17,089 acres as of September 5, and is 10% contained, according to inciweb.com.
There is a full evacuation order in effect for West Kootenai, north of Tooley Lake, said the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office.
It was started on August 11 by a lightning strike.
The strategy with this fire is half containment and half suppression, with incident commanders Shawn Pearson and Bob Habeck in charge.
There are 175 total personnel battling this blaze, according to inciweb.
They are estimating the containment date to be October 30 for the Caribou fire.
---The West Fork fire is in the Kootenai National Forest, just east of the Idaho-Montana state line, and seven miles northwest of Libby, Mont.
The fire was started on August 30 by a lightning strike, according to inciweb.
It is 800 acres in size with 54 people there fighting the fire.
There is an evacuation order for residents in the 17 Mile Community Area of Pipe Creek Road.
---The Gibraltar Ridge fire is seven miles east of Eureka and is 7,195 acres in size.
This fire was started by lightning as well, with a start date of August 7.
There are 78 total people there to battle the blaze and they have it 27% contained, according to inciweb.
They are estimating they will have it contained on October 31.
---The Moose Peak fire is covering 4,993 acres and was started on August 28 by lightning, according to inciweb.
It is part of a group of fires called the Highway 200 Complex, it is covering about 20,000 acres in total for all of the fires in the complex.
Here is the air quality index for Montana from Tuesday afternoon.
