Weather forecast works against Montana firefighters

BILLINGS, Mont. — Fire-stoking winds and lightning are forecast across much of the Northern Rockies Thursday as crews rush to bolster protective lines around more than a dozen blazes that already have scorched tens of thousands of acres.

National Weather Service meteorologists warned that fire conditions would rise to critical Thursday afternoon across most of Montana and a large swath of central Idaho.

More favorable conditions early Thursday allowed crews to gain ground on some blazes, including a 20,000-acre complex of fires on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation in Montana. An estimated two dozen homes and other structures were threatened by the five wildfires comprising the Black Springs complex near Lame Deer, Mont.

To the west, a 4,500-acre wildfire in northern Wyoming crossed into Montana, threatening several rural subdivisions south of Red Lodge, Mont.