Both developments came amid worsening extreme drought in North Dakota.
The Roosevelt Creek Fire encompassed about 900 acres, or about 1 ½ square miles, in Billings County, with zero containment by late afternoon, according to Misty Hayes, district ranger for the Medora Ranger District of the Little Missouri National Grassland. The fire started on Wednesday about 6 miles north of Wannagan Campground, north of the South Unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park. It was burning in rugged Badlands terrain. The cause wasn t known. No ranches threatened right now; some oil wells in the area but no immediate threat, Hayes said.
Larger fires this spring include ones that burned about 3 ½ square miles in the Medora area and an 8-square-mile blaze in the North Unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park.