Firefighters have focused their efforts on several large wood fires ravaging the backcountry of western Montana over the past week. Firefighters continue to pull away from the Remington Fire, Montana’s largest wildfire of the season so far, as it is nearly contained in Big Horn, Rosebud and Powder River counties.

Ravalli County is the scene of several large fires. The Sharrott Creek Fire burns nearly 3,000 acres three miles west of Stevensville. The fire, which was considered 23 percent contained as of Thursday, has more than doubled in size in the past week and remains the most heavily contained fire in the state. On the other side of the Bitterroot Valley, the Railroad and Daly fires burn near each other along the Ravalli County-Granite County border, covering a combined 2,500 acres. The Johnson Fire also continues to burn more than 4,000 acres in southern Ravalli County near the Beaverhead County border.

In addition, the Grouse Fire now encompasses 5,000 acres in Beaverhead County, about 10 miles south of Wise River. The fire was first reported on July 25 and grew rapidly over the next week. By mid-August, state agencies had demobilized the fire camp and returned command of firefighting operations to the county. But since spontaneously growing to 600 acres on Wednesday, September 4, the fire has continued to spread.

According to the National Weather Service offices in Missoula and Billings, the weekend forecast does not include high winds or fire-prone humidity levels. Even with high temperatures, the fire risk remains mild. However, Montanans can expect foggy skies over the next few days as smoke continues to filter into Montana from Idaho and Canada.