Smoldering coal buried deep underground has ignited thousands of acres of rangeland in eastern Montana this fire season, but state officials say they've obtained a new grant aimed at funding efforts to stop the hidden fires at their source.
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At least eight wildfires have burned across eastern Montana in the past two weeks, and investigators say the flames are not starting above ground— they are coming from below it.
Coal seams, flammable layers of coal buried anywhere from 70 to 270 feet underground, can ignite naturally and burn for decades or even centuries. When those underground fires break through the surface, they ignite grasslands and spark fast-moving wildfires.
Custer County Fire Chief Cory Cheguis said the scale of the problem is difficult to overstate.
"We've got 1,600 unattended campfires camped out in the hills, just waiting for a windy day for them to head off again," he said.
John Trusler, owner of Otter Creek Dirt Work out of Ashland, has spent more than two decades fighting coal seam fires and said the danger to nearby communities is real.
"One of these days it's gonna burn somebody's residence down, and it's gonna...be really disastrous," Trusler said.
The only way to extinguish a coal seam fire is to dig it out, which is expensive. Trusler said the price tag can be significant even for smaller fires.
"The fires get 10, 15, 20 acres...that fire can cost $100,000," Trusler said.
The financial toll extends well beyond firefighting. Cheguis said the economic impact on landowners and ranchers adds up quickly.
"When you have these mega fires that we're continuing to see, to have these large fires caused by coal seams, the costs are endless," Cheguis said.
Cheguis said the focus now is shifting from response to prevention.
"How do we prevent the wildfire that continues to happen every single year?" Cheguis said.
A portion of a $49.7 million grant secured through the Climate Resiliency Project and funded by the EPA will go toward targeting some of the worst coal seam hot spots. The Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation was allocated $10 million for the excavations of the coal seams, and the work will be conducted by the Custer County Fire Department this fall.
Cheguis said the investment is sure to pay off.
"It'll be cost-effective. I mean, if we take care of some of these ones that are constantly causing wildfires, it's a proven...that we will save money."
