Grass fires rage around Browning
<p>Columbia Falls Fire Chief Rick Hagen joins a crew of firefighters and BNSF Railway employees last week filling tanker cars with water to fight two huge grass fires in Browning.</p>
January weather shed its winter image last week, breaking records in the Flathead Valley while stoking vast grass fires near Browning last week.
The warm weather coupled with stiff winds sent grass fires blazing across the Blackfeet Indian Reservation on Jan. 4. The temperature reached 50 degrees in Kalispell that day - a new record for the date.
With winds reaching 60 mph, two separate fires scorched about 18,000 acres, forcing people to be evacuated from their homes, including a boarding school. The Boy Fire started north of Browning just east of Highway 464. The second fire started east of Browning near the junction of U.S. 2 and U.S. 89.
Dozens of fire departments from the east side of the mountains joined in the firefighting effort. East Glacier photographer and volunteer firefighter Tony Bynum said that at times fire was "on the entire horizon."
"I've never seen anything like it," he said.
Blown by the wind, it was difficult and at times simply impossible to fight the fires. By Jan. 5, the winds had died down some, and a light rain fell in Browning. By Jan. 6, the fires were 95 percent contained.
The fires were the largest on the Blackfeet Reservation in recent history. Much of U.S. 2 between Browning and Cut Bank was closed during the night Jan. 4 as the Boy Fire made a 19-mile run.
One fire was blamed on a downed power line, and the other was believed to have been started by an ember from a chimney. Two houses were confirmed destroyed, one unoccupied. There were no reported injuries.
The weather this week is expected to be cooler and wetter with a chance of rain and snow and highs in the 30s.