Wildfires in the west: Firefighter missing fighting Montana wildfire as more than 86 wildfires burn in the United States

The Granite Pass complex fire is part of several fires in the United States, primarily in the west. At least 86 active big forest fires charred nearly 1.5 million acres, according to the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC). This year, 36,467 fires burned a total of 2,770,454 acres in the United States, the NIFC said.

A ongoing drought associated to high temperatures continues to fuel the flames across much of the west, threatening homes, causing evacuations and destroying structures.

Montana firefighter search

Authorities are looking for the missing firefighter by land and air after his last sighting near Granite Hot Springs along Highway 12 on Sunday, the statement said.

All other firefighters assigned to the incident were listed after the firefighter went missing to the California Interagency Incident Management Team at around 7:30 p.m.

Research efforts are supported by the Missoula County Sheriff’s Office and law enforcement staff with Lolo National Forest and Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forest.

More than 22,000 firefighters and other personnel have been deployed to fight the blazes in the United States, the NIFC said.

The Missoula County Sheriff’s Office has issued an evacuation warning from Martin Creek on Route 12 to the Idaho border as wildfires continue to burn in the area.

The dangerous fire conditions have already injured five federal firefighters who were working in Montana last week.

“Numerous wind changes and rapid rates of spread caused the fires to behave erratically as thunderstorms and associated cells passed over the area when the incident occurred,” the statement said.

BLM said firefighters were evacuated and medically assessed to “determine the extent of their injuries” following the July 22 incident in Garfield County. An update on their terms was not available.

The Beaverhead-Deerlodge is Montana’s largest national forest, covering 3.35 million acres in eight counties in southwestern Montana.

Severe fire conditions fueling the Bootleg Fire

“Severe fire weather conditions and extremely dry fuels continue to challenge us on this fire,” said Joe Hessel, incident commander of the Oregon Department of Forestry incident management team on Sunday. He noted that the progress that has been made “is due to the continuous and vigilant work of our crews”.

Oregon Governor Kate Brown told CNN’s Jake Tapper on Sunday that she was concerned the high temperatures would continue to contribute to the spread of the Bootleg fire.

“It is extremely important with climate change, that we enter these forests and start doing the adjustment, harvesting and normative burning, so that we can create landscapes that are healthier and more resistant to forest fires,” he said. Brown said.

She signed a law last week that would arm the state with tools and resources to make communities “more suited” to wildfires. The legislation includes resources for adequate firefighting tools and normative and mitigation efforts.

Dixie Fire exhibiting extreme fire behavior

In an update on Sunday, the Inciweb page noted that the fire “has seen significant growth and very difficult fire conditions”.

More than 5,000 firefighters are working on the two fires, the website said.

The fires have threatened several communities and burned areas that will be examined by damage assessment teams once conditions become safer, according to Inciweb.