Fire burns near Lindbergh Lake

The Daily Inter Lake

An 80-acre fire is burning in heavy timber on steep slopes near Condon in the Seeley-Swan Valley.

The Lindbergh Lake Fire was reported near 1 p.m. on Monday and rapidly progressed up the steep slopes on the southwestern side of Lindbergh Lake.

"At this time, the fire is being driven by the topography," Karen Sargeant, public information officer for the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation, said in a press release. "It's very steep terrain in there."

Crews initially attacked the fire from the lake and from the air. Helicopters from the DNRC in Missoula and Helena dropped buckets of water while a retardant tanker dropped loads of retardant at the head of the fire.

Several boaters at Lindbergh Lake volunteered to use their boats to shuttle crews and equipment across the lake to the base of the fire.

The plan for today is to continue fighting the fire with helicopters from the DNRC and ground crews from the DNRC, U.S. Forest Service, and Blackfeet Tribe.

There are no structures threatened at this time.

The Lindbergh Lake Campground is closed and all trails to Crystal Lake are closed. The cause of the fire is still under investigation.

An information center has been established at the Condon Work Center.