BECKY BOHRER
Associated Press Writer
WEST GLACIER, Mont. (AP) -- Crews battling a 17,000-acre wildfire near Glacier National Park braced Thursday for more unfavorable weather and guardedly sized up their progress against the blaze.
``We've got a few scratch lines around the tiger, but the tiger's still a tiger,'' said Bob McKinney, information officer for the Moose fire.
People who fled about a dozen houses Monday under an evacuation order were allowed to return home briefly Thursday for their belongings.
``We're not letting them hang out and wait for the fire to come,'' Flathead County Undersheriff Chuck Curry said. The homes are in a sparsely populated area about three miles northeast of the fire.
The fire burned just two miles from the park, Montana's crown jewel. Several campgrounds and some backcountry trails remained closed as a precaution, but other park facilities and services went uninterrupted.
Forecasts calling for strong winds and continued heat. The fire is only 5 percent contained.
The National Interagency Fire Center reported that some 19,000 firefighters faced 23 major fires burning on more than 226,000 acres Thursday. A year ago, 85 major fires were burning on 1.64 million acres in one of the nation's most disastrous fire seasons in a century.
Three fires continued to burn in California on 13,000 acres. One of those, burning near Weaverville in Northern California, earlier forced nearly 3,000 people to evacuate and burned at least nine homes. By Thursday, however, the evacuation orders were lifted and the fire was 75 percent contained.
