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A black bear cub that had its paws burned in a forest fire near Hamilton, Montana, sits in a kennel at a veterinary clinic in Hamilton on Sunday, August 20, 2000.   Fifty years after firefighters rescued a bear from the Lincoln National Forest in New Mexico and named him Smokey Bear, a small cub has emerged burned but alive from the wildfires.   See more of the story...

Oregon firefighter Nate Goodwine looks for a position to fight a wilderness fire in the Sage Basin in Montana, Monday, Aug. 21, 2000. More Montana forest and grass land, in 16 counties from Canada to Wyoming, should be closed to all public use because the wildfire threat is severe, a group of state and federal agencies says in a preliminary recommendation to the governor.  See more of the story...

Firefighters work a firebreak while fighting the Beaver Creek Fire in the Cabin Creek Wildlife Management Area, part of the Gallatin National Forest, south of Big Sky, Montana, Tuesday, Aug. 22, 2000.  See more of the story...

Third Billings National Guard unit sent to the fires on August 23, 2000.  See more of the story...

BILLINGS - If you live in Billings, you could definitely feel the effects of all the fires burning around the state Saturday afternoon.  It was incredibly smoky in Billings. The smoke clogged up the usually expansive views from the rims that people come up here to see. One woman up at the rims with her family said the ominous haze drifting here from up to hundreds of miles definitely hit home on how bad things really are!

Pines burn intensely at the Toston fire, Thursday, August 24, 2000, near Helena, Mont. The Toston fire, one of several burning in Montana, has burned more than 80,000 acres.  See more of the story...

Hand crews from New Mexico, cut their way through a portion of the Toston fire Wednesday, August 23, 2000, near Helena, Montana. The Toston fire, one of several burning in Montana, has burned more than 75,000 acres. See more of the story...

Choking smoke not enough to change climate, scientist says.  See more of the story...

8/24/2000  Rancher Bill Berbert looks at a giant plume of smoke near Toston Friday where winds pushed a fire out of control Friday. Some of Berbert’s property was blackened by the fire.   See more of the story ...

8/25/2000 A member of the firefighter training crew from the National Interagency Fire Center helps a Fort Campbell, Ky. soldier assemble his safety equipment before deploying to Montana to fight forest fires. Approximately 500 troops from Fort Campbell left Thursday to fight blazes in either the Bitterroot National Forest or the Kootenai National Forest, both in southwestern Montana.  See more of the story...

As a preventive measure against the wildfires in the area, one rancher keeps his classic cars and his cows in a field saturated by a sprinkler Saturday, Aug. 26, 2000, southeast of Hamilton, Montana. Montana has 25 fires on nearly 660,000 acres, the biggest of those in the Bitterroot Valley where about 70 dwellings have been destroyed. State officials have said the number of people directly involved with fire suppression in Montana, including military personnel, is about 10,000.