CROW AGENCY — Firefighters are asking residents to be extra cautious, after a series of human-caused fires near Crow Agency resulted in injuries, arrests, loss of structures, and loss of personal property.
Randy Pretty on Top, a fuels specialist with the Bureau of Indian Affairs, says three of the fires occurred Saturday, starting with a fire that burned overnight Friday by the carpet mill in Crow Agency. Pretty on Top says in this fire residents lost most of their possessions including two trailer houses, outbuildings, vehicles and trailers holding things from Crow Fair.
Around 1 p.m. Saturday, an illegal trash fire burned 1 1/2 acres right up to a house south of old Black Lodge Community Hall and injured a resident. “We barely saved that structure,” Pretty On Top said. “It got right up to the doorstep and melted the sidings.”
Saturday evening around 5:40 p.m. firefighters responded to a fire north of Lodge Grass that burned a house, trailer, RV , vehicle and horse trailer. Firefighters from the BIA, Big Horn County Rural Fire, and Lodge Grass City Fire Department were able to stop the fire at under an acre before it reached three other structures. A person was arrested in connection to this fire.
Another person was arrested Friday in connection to a separate fire that burned 2 acres off the freeway north of Crow.
Fire officials remind everyone that open burning, campfires, burning trash and fires on the ground are all prohibited right now under Stage 1 fire restrictions.
If you're planning on lighting a fire for a sweat, please call ahead to Crow Fire at 406-638-2247.
