North Delphia Fire causes evacuations east of Roundup, Montana

map North Delphia Fire

Above: map showing the location of the North Delphia Fire east of Roundup, Montana. The red dots represent heat detected by a satellite at 12:37 p.m. MDT July 14, 2017.

(UPDATED at 10 p.m. MDT July 14, 2017)

At about 9:50 p.m. on Friday the Musselshell County DES reported that there was a dozer line around the entire fire, which has burned about 3,700 acres. No homes were destroyed but five outbuildings were damaged.

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(Originally published at 4:22 p.m. MDT July 14, 2017)

The North Delphia Fire is causing evacuations between Roundup and Musselshell Montana Friday afternoon. At about 3:30 p.m. Friday the Musselshell County DES estimated it had burned around 2,000 acres. As far as they knew at that time, no structures have been destroyed. It was reported about mid-morning on Friday off Buckhorn Land north of the North Delphia Subdivision.

It is north of Highway 12 and 13 miles northeast of Roundup.

Multiple aircraft are working the fire and crews are reporting progress. At about 4 p.m. the BLM reported that approximately 16,000 gallons of fire retardant had been pumped into air tankers heading to the fire.

The Red Cross is establishing a shelter at the Roundup Community Center for evacuees.

Smoke from the fire was showing up on radar but by 3:30 it was no longer visible on radar.

It is dry and breezy at Roundup this afternoon. At 3.55 p.m. a weather station near the town recorded 98 degrees, 13 percent relative humidity, and NNW winds at 10 mph gusting to 18.

The map below shows the track of what is probably an air attack ship orbiting over the fire.

North Delphia Fire Air attack
The map shows the track of an aircraft over the North Delphia Fire during the mid-afternoon July 14, 2017. It is a Rockwell International 690A, and is probably being used as an air attack ship.

Thanks and a tip of the hat go out to Al.
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Author: Bill Gabbert

After working full time in wildland fire for 33 years, he continues to learn, and strives to be a Student of Fire.

3 thoughts on “North Delphia Fire causes evacuations east of Roundup, Montana”

  1. For you aviation and history buffs, the four hangars in the background of the BLM photo are where 4 hot F 111’s from Detachment 1, 5th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron were stationed during the Cold War from the mid 60’s until 1976 or so. There were nuclear war heads stored at the Base. The doctrine at the time was, if Minot and Ellsworth were hit in an initial attack by the Russians and they were able to get planes in the air they would land in Billings and load nuclear war heads before proceeding on to Russia. They Bunkers are still there.

    As for the Base Fire Station, is it now the mechanics shop for the Montana DNRC fire. Various buildings are leased to State and federal agencies including the BLM Fire Cache and the Interagency Tanker Base,

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