More on the Madison Arm Fire
A couple of days ago, a forest fire started in the Gallatin National Forest along the Madison Arm of Hebgen Lake a few miles outside of town. What started as a 4 acre fire has grown to encompass 3,000 acres in the last couple of days. Today, we drove up Contour Rd to take a look.
We watched the helicopters go back and forth between Hebgen Lake and the fire filling giant buckets to pour over the flames.
Two planes took turns dumping retardant on the perimeter of the fire in order to stop it’s growth.
Here’s another shot of the Aero Union Plane making a circle around the fire.
These two planes appear to work together in figuring out where to dump the next load of retardant.
Here’s a close up shot of the Aero Union as it swooped overhead.
The fire fighting crew has grown to around 600 350 people camped out on the edge of town, working hard to keep it under control. While the fire is rather close to town, so far we have not had to worry to much about our own safety as the winds have consistently kept it moving in the opposite direction. So far not much has been said about damage to homes and summer cabins in the area of the fire. I’m utterly unfamiliar with wildfires but I imagine it is a pretty safe bet to say that some homes may have been lost. Luckily, it seems people were safely evacuated before the fire spread. I guess this is really just a reality of living in The West, especially following such a dry winter and warm and dry spring. Just the same, it is sad to watch so much forest burn, realizing it was likely the cause of a person being careless.