The Wildland Urban Interface, or WUI, is where forest and homes meet. It’s the fastest growing land use type in the nation, and also where one in three
Heading into September, major wildfires in Montana had destroyed 13 structures.
That changed early in the month when high winds whipped a series of fires that burned 153 structures, including a combined 116 structures destroyed by the Bridger Foothills fire in Gallatin County and the Bobcat fire in Musselshell County.
At the same time, the Huff fire was pushed through Garfield County by winds that at one point gusted 50 mph, leading to the temporary evacuation of the town of Jordan.
The fire burned 24 structures and among the livestock losses were 200 sheep.
The 166 structures lost over the course of the 2020 wildfire season, many of them homes, is the most in Montana since 2012 when fires greater than 100 acres took 464 structures.