http://bit.ly/2xhqcMo

The article I decided to write my first news comment on was titled “UPDATE: Wildfire Sparks South of Helena, Evacuations Underway” which is about my home town in Montana and the wildfires that are consuming my state. This afternoon, Thursday, August 24th, a lightening storm spiked a fire that brings the states total above 25 fires. The state Capital and its surrounding cities, including Montana City and the South Hills, are being covered with smoke and tormented by fire. Many areas, including Holmes Gulch and Martinez Gulch Rd, are under immediate evacuation orders, while areas further from the fire are on standby.

 

This is important news, not only to my family and me but also to the rest of the country. Recently, and by recently I mean close to three months, not a single news source of great significance has covered the wildfires of Montana for more than a short period of time. While the state itself is very large and contains a large amount of land, the fires are cultivating themselves around the most densely populated areas of the state. Lolo has been under evacuation for weeks with the blaze steadily moving towards Missoula, one of the largest cities in the state. This is no longer a matter of a loss of land or a loss of field, this is a matter of a loss of property and potentially people. This news source, the Helena Independent Record, is necessary to bring to light the harm and immediate danger of new fires such as this fire in the South Hills Valley to the people of Helena and the state. With evacuations being taken place within miles of the Capital, this newspaper is providing the people with locations and times of fire growth.