Suenram echoed them in her recital of the day's events.

"It's sad," she said. "Oh, gosh, it's sad."

***

The poor weather conditions troubling firefighters are expected to stretch into the weekend.

The likelihood of thunderstorms was expected to peak Friday or Saturday, bringing lightning that could start new blazes and wind gusts that could fuel existing ones. A Red Flag Warning was in effect until 9 p.m. Thursday for many of the region’s fires, with crews largely unable to conduct new controlled burns and waiting at the ready to attack any new starts..

Thw Lolo Peak fire put up a new plume Thursday evening, causing a stir on social media.

"The fire was kind of sitting in one spot for five to six days," said fire information officer Todd Schoeder, but it started moving again Wednesday and kept going Thursday. It spotted south of One Horse Creek and continues to burn on a north-facing slope about 1.5 miles west of the mouth of the canyon, Schoeder said Thursday night.

Retardant was laid down at the rate of 20,000 to 30,000 gallons an hour Thursday, he said. "We were hitting it hard all day ... and we'll have eyes on it all night long."