In the middle of the night, when nearly every resident was in bed, a wind-driven fire tore through tinder dry grass on the southeast corner of Great Falls, destroying 11 homes and uprooting the lives of scores of Great Falls citizens.
The Gibson Flats Fire can now be counted as one of the most destructive wildfire events within recent memory in Great Falls. At one point every available fire fighter in the city was dispatched to the neighborhood, where gusts up to 56 miles per hour pushed the flame front ahead so fast it didn't have time to burn all the grass beneath it.
"It was moving fast enough that it was actually skipping fuels," Great Falls Fire Rescue Chief Jeremy Jones said.
On Wednesday afternoon, Great Falls emergency response officials reported that no injuries or lives had been lost in the blaze, but as many as 65 individuals were forced to evacuate their homes.