LEWISTOWN - High winds and hot, dry weather fueled a wildfire Wednesday that had scorched 1,200 acres of the Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge.

The Brandon Coulee fire was sparked Tuesday night by lightning, fire management officer Mike Granger said.

Two ground crews and a helicopter had contained 60 percent of the fire, which was burning 50 miles south of Malta and across the Missouri River from the Devils Creek Recreation Area. Full containment was expected by Friday, although high winds caused by passing thunderstorms were "pushing the fire lines" Wednesday, Granger said.

"We're also trying to herd the fire into natural barriers," he said.

No structures were threatened and no one had been injured.

The refuge, named after famed Western artist Charles Russell, sits on 1.1 million acres in north-central Montana that feature the prairies, forested coulees, river bottoms and badlands often portrayed by Russell in his paintings.