Thousands are evacuated as wildfires surge towards Montana towns as 105 different blazes torch 2.4 million acres across the American West
As the country's largest wildfire burns through Northern California, a fast-growing wildfire in southeastern Montana grows more dangerous, causing evacuations for thousands of residents.
High temperatures and drought conditions that have left trees, grass and brush bone-dry throughout many Western states, leaving them ripe for ignition.
Currently 105 large fires or complexes are burning in the US, torching 2.4 million acres of land.
Of those, 87 of them are concentrated in the Western states of California, Montana, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington, the National Interagency Fire Center said.
MONTANA: The Richard Spring fire has threatening hundreds of homes as it burned across the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation
MONTANA: A firefighter watches the flames of the Richard Spring wildfire burn on the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation in Montana
MONTANA: An aircraft drops fire retardant to slow the spread of the Richard Spring fire in Montana on Wednesday
More than a hundred large fires or complexes are currently burning in the US, torching 2.4 million acres of land
A plume of smoke rises from the Richard Spring wildfire on Wednesday as the Richard Spring wildfire spreads in Montana
A plume of smoke can be seen in the background as Cascade County sheriff's deputies prevent traffic from passing through along Highway 212 in Montana
In Montana, the Richard Spring Fire has made its way towards the sparsely-populated Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation and has left several thousands of people in the region under evacuation orders.
The town of about 2,000 people is home to the tribal headquarters and several subdivisions and is surrounded by rugged, forested terrain.
Also ordered to leave were about 600 people in and around Ashland, a small town just outside the reservation. Local, state and federal firefighters were joined by ranchers using their own heavy equipment to carve out fire lines around houses.
The Montana blaze has been active since Sunday and has burned though 166,000 acres since Thursday morning and so far has only been 15 percent contained.
Firefighters watch a hillside burn on the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation
Rowdy Alexander watches from atop his horse as a hillside burns on the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation
Smoke obscures the air and dims the sun over a hillside burned by a recent wildfire, in Missoula, Montana back in July
Powerful wind gusts initially caused the wildfire to explode across more than 230 square miles and by Wednesday the wildfire displayed extreme behavior and had grown by tens of thousands of acres, according to the NIFC.
The wildfire burned along the Tongue River until Wednesday night when it leapt over Highway 212 and crept into the evacuated town of Lame Deer.
Rancher Jimmy Peppers was helpless as he watched the fire approach his home in Lame Deer and forced to herd his cattle onto a neighbor's pasture closer to town
'I didn't think it would cross the highway so I didn't even move my farm equipment,' Peppers told AP. 'I don't know if I'll have a house in the morning.'
Montana is now the wildfire capital of the U.S. with 25 active wildfires currently burning
Juan Valencia, a crewman from Porterville, California keeps an eye out for spot fires from the Dixie Fire near Taylorsville, California as the wildfire is officially the largest in the U.S.
MONTANA: Communities in and around the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation in southeastern Montana were evacuated ahead of the Richard Spring wildfire on Wednesday
MONTANA: Smoke from the Richard Springs wildfire obscures the view of trees on the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation
MONTANA: Ashland residents stand in the streets and look on as the Richard Springs wildfire approaches
A burned truck is buried under rubble next to a property that was destroyed by the Dixie Fire in the small town of Greenville
A burned truck sits parked next to a property that was destroyed by the Dixie Fire in Greenville, California
What remains of a building in Plumas County near Taylorsville after the Dixie Fire has reduced several small towns to ash
The extreme behavior of the Richard Spring wildfire has been driven by high winds and low relative humidity combined with high temperatures.
Montana is now the wildfire capital of the U.S. with 25 active wildfires currently burning.
Meanwhile in California the Dixie Fire - which started July 13 and is the largest wildfire burning in the nation - threatened a dozen small communities in the northern Sierra Nevada even though its southern end was mostly corralled by fire lines.
The blaze had burned over 780 square miles and destroyed over 500 homes and left the Gold-rush era town of Greenville in ashes.
The wildfire remains at 30% contained.
In Northern California, a number of wildfires and the threat of more prompted three national forests to close down the Trinity Alps Wilderness Area, a half-million-acre area of granite peaks, lakes and trails, into November.
'Tracking hikers in unsafe areas pulls much-needed aircraft away from firefighting efforts, and adds risk and exposure to first responders. Additionally, forest managers hope to limit the possibility of human-caused fires with this temporary full closure,' said a forest statement.
Scientists have said climate change has made the region much warmer and drier in the past 30 years and will continue to make the weather more extreme and wildfires more frequent and destructive. The more than 100 large wildfires in the American West come as parts of Europe are also burning.