Red Cross volunteers en route to Montana wildfires | News

The Ash Creek fire continues to burn east of Billings, Montana. Volunteers from the Red Cross are on their way to Montana to help assist with the fire. The group met up in Spokane Tuesday afternoon to prepare their assistant by bringing in food and water for the rural communities and firefighters.

The group consists of volunteers from around Eastern Washington. The volunteer director for the Inland Northwest chapter, Dawn Holman, says their volunteer services are the closest group to the Montana disaster area.

“They actually called and requested our help,” Holman said. “We have a strong volunteer workforce to take the time and help those people.”

Holman added that their three emergency response vehicles will transport volunteers over to help provide shelter to those that need it. They’ll pick up food and water supplies in Billings to take over to the communities that need it especially if they’re without power. Once they arrive, they’ll figure out how to distribute their services.

The fire was sparked last week when lightning struck ten miles east of Lame Deer. It is currently burning 186,800 acres and is 55 percent contained. The incident management team says the majority of the fire’s activity is in the ponderosa pine forest where the fuel is dense and resisting suppression efforts from fire crews.