Firefighters in southern Montana are responding to a growing fire near the Beartooth Highway that had burned about 100 acres on Monday afternoon.
Red Lodge Fire Rescue in Carbon County, Montana, is sharing updates on the “rapidly moving” East Side Fire in Custer Gallatin National Forest. The fire was burning on the east side of the Beartooth Highway, U.S. Highway 212, roughly six miles south of Red Lodge.
Road closures and evacuation orders have been enacted within the vicinity of the fire, which is close but hasn’t yet crossed the Wyoming state line. As of 3:33 p.m., air tankers and helicopters are “arriving on scene” and a barricade has been set up on all roads in the vicinity “for the safe travel the safe travel of emergency personnel.”
“The Carbon County Sheriff's office, in cooperation with the Montana Department of Transportation, will be shutting down Highway 212 south of the intersection of Highway 212 and West Fork Road,” Red Lodge Fire Rescue posted. “Evacuations… are in progress. This is a rapidly moving fire. Please avoid the area for public and firefighter safety.”
No one at Red Lodge Fire Rescue was available to comment at the time of publication, but eyewitness Steve Williams told Cowboy State Daily he had been heading toward Red Lodge when he saw a wall of flames in the distance.
He said the East Fire was burning through a patch of forest at the foot of the mountains.
Blowing Up Quickly
“It did blow up very quickly, heading towards the mountain, seemingly, away from the homes I could see,” Williams said. “When I arrived in the area, the first crews were arriving.”
Williams didn’t need to be told to leave the area. He had turned around and headed back into Red Lodge within 10 minutes.
Red Lodge resident Haliegh Baldock was about a mile south of Rock Creek Resort when she stopped to get some photos of the growing fire.
“We’re not sure how it started yet, but it’s moving quite fast,” she said. “The wind is moving pretty quickly up that way and bringing it down the mountain. The Carbon County Sheriff did come up and have all bystanders leave and go back down.”
Meanwhile, a large plume of smoke could clearly be seen from Red Lodge.
The Rattin Campground, right across U.S. Highway 212 from the Beartooth Highway Welcome Sign, and other homes in the vicinity have been evacuated as of 1:10 p.m. Monday.
The Carbon County Sheriff’s Office has issued an evacuation order for an area that extends all the way to the southern edge of Red Lodge. Meanwhile, volunteers from Carbon County Search and Rescue were going door-to-door to inform residents in the impacted area.
As of 2:45 p.m., the evacuation area stretched south from Spring and Corral Creeks in Custer Gallatin National Forest all the way to Meeteetse Meadows Road, just south of Red Lodge. Evacuated residents are being sent to shelter at the Carbon County Fairgrounds in Red Lodge.
Baldock said people’s interactions with the Sheriff’s Office emphasized the severity of the situation.
“They are indeed evacuating people and not letting people up to retrieve anything from their homes,” she said. “(We’re) just waiting to hear more, but it’s a pretty bad fire.”
Red Lodge Fire, Monday, April 20, 2026 (Reader photo: Steve Williams) 
Red Lodge Fire, Monday, April 20, 2026 (Reader photo: Steve Williams) 
Red Lodge Fire, Monday, April 20, 2026 (Reader photo: Steve Williams)
Still Closed
The Beartooth Highway is currently being cleared of snow in anticipation of its opening on May 22. The entire 64-mile stretch has been closed since October 2025.
The section of U.S. Highway 212 from the entrance of the Beartooth Highway to Red Lodge was closed on Monday afternoon. The only people beyond that point are snow-clearing crews with the Montana Department of Transportation.
This is a developing story. Updates will be posted as information becomes available.
