Farther south, the Goat Mountain fire, fought over the weekend, was declared contained Sunday. Neither of the large fires in the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest grew yesterday. Both have plenty of unburned trees inside the fire perimeters, and so burning continued, with some trees torching. At the Middle Fork complex, near Philipsburg, work continues on a fire line from Highway 38 to Mount Emerine and on to near Kaiser Lake. Crews and engines are working today north and south of Highway 38 to build fire line there.
Helicopters continue dropping water on hot spots.
At the Mussigbrod fires, fires are slowly burning toward control lines built in the last few days. Officials report relatively clear air allowed good reconnaissance of the fire from aircraft. Crews are working today to reinforce fire lines in the Prairie Creek area and from Mussigbrod Lake to Bender and Johnson creeks. Fire fighters plan to backfire from these and other lines, when conditions are right, to stop the advance of the fires. There are 475 people working the Mussigbrod and Maynard fires.