Update, 6 p.m.: This story has been updated to reflect a change in the size of the Short Draw fire from 30,500 acres to 40,000 acres, and that evacuation notices and warnings remain in place. Information on notable fires also has been updated with the latest information available.
Firefighters on both side of the Wyoming-Montana border report progress battling the 40,000-acre Short Draw Fire.
Even so, an evacuation notice remains in place in northern Campbell County in the Border Line Estates/Ranchets area north of Recluse, Wyoming, as the fire is still unpredictable and threatening homes. In Montana, an evacuation warning is active for people living east of Buffalo Creek to Butte Creek Road, and from the state line to the Powder River.
“Things are looking better, for sure,” said Campbell County Fire Marshal Stuart Burnham on Friday. “Progress was made on containment yesterday, but we don’t have a percentage on that until they’re able to map that.”
The estimated size of the fire has been increased to about 40,000 acres Friday evening, up about 25% from the 30,500 to start the day.
That's likely the result of an aerial infrared assessment scheduled for Friday gather more accurate information. That was to happen overnight Thursday, but it couldn’t be completed, so it’s being done Friday, he said.
In the meantime, Campbell County Fire Department crews have turned over management of the fire to a county assist team with the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation. The fire began in Wyoming and burned into Montana, with about two-thirds of the fire area north of the border.
After a volatile and unpredictable start that saw the fire explode quickly, firefighters on both sides of the border made progress building fire lines and protecting property, Burnham said. That was helped by a relatively calm day with little wind.
“We didn’t get the winds we were expecting yesterday, and today it’s supposed to be cooler, so we’re hoping that could help decrease the fire behavior and help more,” he said.
But that doesn’t mean people evacuated from the Border Line Estates area can return home just yet, he said. An evacuation notice remains in effect, and the Montana incident team will reevaluate that as more progress is made on fire containment.
“There are still structures being threatened right now,” Burnham said, adding the CCFD will begin a more detailed inventory of homes and ranches in the area Friday to determine just what the physical losses have been.
The fire remains 0% contained, the Montana DNRC County Assist Team reported Friday evening. It's burning timber — mostly pine and juniper — along with grass and sagebrush. The situation is still considered "extreme" with potential for "wind-driven runs," the team reports.
There are 106 firefighting personnel working to contain the Short Draw Fire. There also is a temporary flight restriction in place over the burn area, which includes people flying drones.
The Short Draw Fire burns right up to a road in Montana. (Powder River County Sheriffs Office) 
A plane drops fire retardant on the Short Draw Fire in Montana just north of the Wyoming border. (Powder River County Sheriffs Office)
North Of The Border
On the other side of the border in Montana, fire crews also made a lot of progress and have basically built a fire line around the Short Draw Fire, said Raymond Ragsdale, chief of the Broadus Volunteer Fire Department.
“We got it all tied up last night,” he told Cowboy State Daily on Friday, hours after coming in from a 30-hour stint on the ground fighting the blaze. “We got a line burned all around our side.”
He said much of Thursday was spent having to redo a lot of work that shifting winds destroyed in the first hours of battling the wildfire.
With crews in Montana and Wyoming both working to build fire lines around the perimeter, they nearly completed it, getting to within about 100 yards of each other.
Then the wind shifted, Ragsdale said.
“We were putting in good lines and getting it burnt off, then Mother Nature decided she would just play with us, and 30-40 mph winds came up,” he said. “In a heartbeat, we lost everything we’d worked on.
“That was Wednesday night. We were just about tied into the Wyoming crew. We literally, our dozers were within 100 yards or so when we lost it. Then (the fire) went a lot of miles in a short amount of time.”
On the Montana side of the fire, Ragsdale said he knows of at least one home confirmed to have burned, and there are likely more.
“The sad part is we spent two hours prepping that house, but it had big pine trees on the east side of it, and that’s where the fire came from,” he said. “There was no saving it.”
Neighbors
While Campbell County crews have been battling a number of large wildfires, so have their counterparts in southeast Montana.
The nearly 200,000-acre Remington Fire that started Aug. 22 in Sheridan County and burned for miles north into Montana a little west of the Short Draw Fire is now 88% contained.
Along with other smaller fires along the border and calls between agencies back and forth for support, the Montana and Wyoming local departments are getting pretty well acquainted this summer, Ragsdale said.
“Shit, we’re just about family by now,” he said. “Because we’re out fighting fires together every week, it seems.”
Another thing the agencies share is fatigue and the unpredictable nature of this season’s wildfires.
“Mostly, we’re getting tired of getting our butts kicked, I’ll tell you that,” Ragsdale said.
Smoke rises from the Bear Creek Fire in east-central Albany County. (Vedauwoo Volunteer Fire Department) 
Map of the evacuation notice area for the Bear Creek Fire in east-central Albany County. (Albany County Emergency Management)
Other Fires
While most of a busy Wyoming wildfire season has been in the northern part of the state, some folks in Albany County are being warned they may have to evacuate because of a lightning-cased fire in the east-central part of the county north of Laramie.
The Bear Creek Fire has burned an estimated 1,422 acres, down from an initial estimate of 2,500 acres, and is 10% contained, the Wyoming State Forestry Division reports.
And like the Short Draw Fire, “The wind hasn’t been helpful, that’s for sure,” said Albany County Emergency Management Coordinator Kate Allred.
There’s an evacuation notice in place for several areas, Allred said, meaning people should be alert in case an evacuation order comes. Those are:
• Within a 5-mile radius of milepost 15 on Highway 34 in Sybille Canyon.
• All of County Road 12 to Morton Pass.
• Highway 34 from the pass to milepost 18, which includes County Road 12.
The fire is in a fairly remote area, burning grass, sagebrush and some timber, Allred said.
“Communication has been a problem up there because there isn’t good cell or radio coverage,” she said.
She also encourages people to sign up online for automatic alerts about the fire and other emergency situations.
• The Warm Springs Fire burning about 5 miles southeast of Thermopolis has held at about 1,600 acres and is now 100% contained, the WSFD reports.
• The Fish Creek Fire reports no changes of note. It's burned nearly 25,000 acres in Bridger-Teton National Forest and is 69% complete as of Friday evening.
Greg Johnson can be reached at greg@cowboystatedaily.com.
