Wildfires bracketed the Southern Nevada town of Beatty on Monday, with about 400 firefighters digging in to stop flames from getting closer than three miles, a fire incident commander said.

"Our priority is to secure the flanks that would have potential to burn toward Beatty," said Merrill Saleen, who put containment of the so-called Beatty and Sawtooth fires at 10 percent.

Saleen said he planned to meet Monday evening with some of Beatty's 1,032 residents, whom he said might get six to eight hours to clear out if ordered to evacuate.

He said he had plenty of resources to fight the lightning-ignited fires burning through dry desert grasses and brush in rocky mountain terrain. He said crews hoped to have containment before Wednesday, when forecasts called for hot, dry winds that could hamper firefighting.

Neither the 29-square-mile Beatty fire, burning about five miles east of Beatty, nor the five-square-mile Sawtooth fire about three miles west of town, threatened U.S. Highway 95, the main road between Las Vegas and Reno.

No injuries were reported, Saleen said, and no structures were immediately threatened.

Both fires started Saturday, a day after Saleen and his Boise, Idaho-based federal firefighting group finished containing a series of wildfires in the vast Desert National Wildlife Refuge north of Las Vegas.

Those lightning-sparked blazes, including the Gass Complex fire and the Vegas fire, covered 62 square miles in a wildlife refuge that is home to desert bighorn sheep and the endangered desert tortoise.

Saleen said firefighters have taken care not to injure tortoises and desert toads that he said are attracted by the scent of water and burrow into shady areas around and beneath firefighting equipment.

Meanwhile, a wildfire in south-central Montana prompted the evacuation of about 110 homes Monday afternoon.

The fire, 10 miles west of Columbus, was reported around 1 p.m. and had burned an estimated 300 acres by early evening, said Karen Tyra, public information officer for Stillwater County Disaster and Emergency Services.

Tyra did not immediately know what caused the fire or how close it was to homes. However, she said the homes were evacuated as a precaution because of high winds. A shelter was being set up at an area fairground.

Also Monday, firefighters made progress against the largest of several wildfires burning in Southern California.

A 2,200-acre blaze in a remote area of Joshua Tree National Park was 90 percent contained, park spokesman Joe Zarki said.

The Pushawalla fire, sparked by lightning Friday, slowed substantially and was no longer moving toward a valley that is home to the endangered desert tortoise, Zarki said. Full containment was expected by evening.

North of Yucca Valley, firefighters worked to contain a 609-acre wildfire in a rugged area near Morongo Valley.

In Beatty, federal firefighters were bolstered by state, county and local firefighters from Las Vegas, 115 miles away, plus six helicopters and two bulldozers.

Saleen said the 3,500-acre Sawtooth fire burned within a few hundred feet of the eastern edge of the huge Death Valley National Park, which is mostly in California.

The 18,600-acre Beatty fire was less than three miles west of a Nellis Air Force Base bombing range and Yucca Mountain, on the western edge of the government's secure Nevada Test Site.

Firefighters contained the Mid-Valley fire last week in the test site after authorities said it covered 8,500 acres about 10 miles east of Yucca Mountain. Authorities said that fire was not in areas used for nuclear weapons testing from 1951 to 1992, and no structures were damaged.

"We're optimistic we'll keep it off the test site," Saleen said Monday of the Beatty fire, which he said might find little new fuel in an area that burned last summer.