DNRC

With the 4th of July celebration that will undoubtedly carry through the weekend, the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation (DNRC) is asking everyone who visits or drives through the Lolo National Forest to use extreme caution with fire.

The Missoula County Fire Protection Association’s interagency wildland officials have raised the fire danger to ‘extreme’ as of noon on Wednesday.

Authorities are investigating the Dry Gulch Fire that was spotted on Monday in the Stevensville area, according to DNRC spokesman Jordan Koppen.

The Dry Gulch Fire has burned over a quarter of an acre about five miles up Dry Gulch Road in an area near Frenchtown that has not experienced any lightning strikes over the past few days, according to Fire Prevention Specialist Jordan Koppen with the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation

A combination of hot temperatures and a lack of moisture in the past two weeks caused the Missoula County Fire Protection Association to raise the fire danger level from ‘High’ to ‘Very High’ on Monday.

Several agencies responded to a wildfire near Huson on Tuesday evening.

After the historic 2017 wildfire season that burned over a million acres of forestland as well as private property, officials with the DNRC are advising residents in the wildland urban interface to prepare their properties for fire.

Archery season opens this Labor Day weekend, and one fire official is using YouTube to encourage fire-safe behavior in the wild.

The Missoula County Fire protections Association has elevated the fire danger in Missoula County as extreme.

Friday night's lighting storm sparked at least one wildfire, this one close to Missoula on Kelly Island.