Crow Reservation faces dry conditions, sees five fires burn last weekend

CROW AGENCY, Mont. — Five fires burned on the Crow Reservation over the weekend.

Sunday about 2 p.m. engines from Crow and Pryor responded to three fires around Fort Smith, Montana: north of Beauvais Creek northwest of St. Xavier, in hay bales southeast of Camp Four in the Bighorn breaks, and on the west slope of Black Canyon. Lightning clouds had passed through. The Communication Tower and Brown fires were each stopped at less than three acres. Reaching the quarter-acre Black Canyon fire requires rugged canyon wall hiking under the tribal buffalo pasture. That fire was getting rain when the helicopter left Sunday afternoon.

Saturday about 2 p.m. the Ok-a-Beh Ridge lightning fire was held to one acre size just above Fort Smith above the Snell ranch west of the Ok-a-Beh Road. Friday evening, an engine also extinguished a human-caused fire in a yard at the bottom of Soap Creek. Summer’s first lightning fire burned four acres July 18, when a Bureau of Indian Affairs engine assisted Big Horn County Rural Fire in North Tullock Creek, just off the Reservation.

Fire danger is moderate as July ends but is likely to be very high in August. Crow Agency received 0.34 inches of rain Friday evening, yet mountain forest logs are drier than average for this date from the last 10 years. The Bighorn Mountains got 0.25 inches of moisure in the last week; the Pryors received 0.19 inches and the Wolf Mountains only 0.13 inches.

By Crow Fair in the third week of August, firefighters may deal with larger range and timber fires at that height of fire season, according to a press release. Officials ask residents to prepare now to stay safe from wildfire by greasing trailer hub bearings before use. A trailer axle fire Sunday totaled a car on Interstate 90 by the Bighorn River bridge. Finish mowing yards and camps while it’s relatively cool. Talk with family, so everyone knows the plan to follow if a wildfire erupts nearby.

Crow Nation area is expected to reach 94 degrees Monday through Wednesday with possible evening thunderstorms until Thursday, bringing a chance of thunderstorms and cooling showers, fire officials reported. The helicopter based in Crow Agency has been flying to nearby fires. In July, BIA Crow Agency firefighters have helped others in northern Montana, Idaho and Arizona.