The Crying Fire in Montana began on Wednesday, July 19, 2017 with a lightning strike. At present there are 7,925 acres affected and the fire is 35% contained. The fire is located in Petroleum County west of the Musselshell River and about 50 miles north of Winnett, Mont.
The Crying Fire is burning in grass, sage and timber on Bureau of Land Management, Private, State and Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge lands. Crews have responded from the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, U.S. Forest Service, Montana Dept. of Natural Resources and Petroleum County. There were 96 personnel on the Crying Fire today. No accidents or injuries have occurred. Two outbuildings were lost.
NASA’s Aqua satellite collected this natural-color image with the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer, MODIS, instrument on July 21, 2017. Actively burning areas, detected by MODIS’s thermal bands, are outlined in red. NASA image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz LANCE/EOSDIS MODIS Rapid Response Team, GSFC. Caption by Lynn Jenner with information from Inciweb.