Montana Evaluates Fire Danger

The annual fire season briefing for Montana was delivered to Governor Brian Schweitzer yesterday including presentations from the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation, the Northern Rockies Coordination Center and a variety of other state and federal agencies.  Schweitzer says the state has already seen fire on more than 30-thousand acres and the hot, dry weather in Montana this month has also elevated the fire risk in some areas unusually high.  Schweitzer says early season predictions about the fire season in Montana and throughout the Northern Rockies geographic area don’t point to an extreme season, but even in an “average” season, fire crews for the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation will respond to 350 wildfires.  Schweitzer says the state this year will add the social media site “Twitter” to the methods it uses to get their fire information out to the public in a timely manner.