12k acres in 12 hours: How the Paradise wildfire quickly grew to threaten the town

A little over a month ago, the world watched in horror as fast-moving flames leveled the idyllic oceanside town of Lahaina on the Hawaiian island of Maui. The fire had started just that day but winds from a distant hurricane swept the flames into a firestorm that killed more than 100 people, making it the deadliest American wildfire in more than a century.

Similar things happened around Montana this summer, thankfully with no deaths reported. But there were other similarities between them: A new fire grows rapidly, fanned by hot and dry winds, to quickly threaten a town. And that happened as Montana has seen a remarkably quiet season for wildfires by some measures.

On this episode Joshua Murdock, outdoors and natural resources reporter at the Missoulian talks about the River Road East Fire outside of Paradise, Montana.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Montana Untamed, hosted by Thom Bridge, covers the state's rugged landscape from hook and bullet to policy and science.