CHARLES ZEWE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: ... area. What does that mean? that means he'll be able to use his National Guard to go into specific areas to help out with security and logistics and that sort of thing to back up these firefighters and make their jobs a little bit easier. This is still a very serious situation. A fire in the Bitterroot Valley where we're located is only 10 percent contained. They're trying to keep it away from the houses. As a matter of fact, in a briefing early this morning, firefighters described it as trying to herd livestock. They're trying to herd the fire into the canyons and draws in this area to keep it away from those houses. They've lost, however, about 50 houses so far. The important thing is -- is that firefighters have not been seriously hurt. And none of the residents of this area have been seriously hurt. They say their first concern here is safety -- Bill.</s>BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Charles, before we let you go here, just looking at your picture in behind you, it's quite clear that that smoke is thick and not just there but I assume it's probably even thicker in other parts? right?</s>ZEWE: That's right, Bill, flying into here in a plane at 20- 30,000 feet, you can actually smell the smoke inside the plane. And you can see it back there on the horizon. It's still very thick throughout these valleys, down from Missoula, all the way down highway 93 into Idaho. You can see the big plumes of smoke. There is a health alert out today for people who live in this area. The conditions are described as very unhealthy. As a matter of fact, firefighters' officials said this morning, that two of the firefighters on the line were overcome by smoke yesterday and had to be pulled off the line and hospitalized temporarily to be treated for smoke inhalation.</s>HEMMER: All right, Charles, Charles Zewe, live in Darby, with the latest from there.
Fires in Montana Claim About 50 Houses