SHELL - Cooler weather promised to help firefighters begin to contain a wildfire that had closed U.S. 14 over the Big Horn Mountains.

But Craig Yancey, a district ranger for Bighorn National Forest, remained wary this morning that the fire could keep spreading and eventually threaten cabins.

Until early Wednesday, the Bone Fire had burned about 8,000 acres of rough, forested terrain north of the highway between Shell and Burgess Junction on the mountains' west side. Then a windy cold front passed through, fanning the flames to 12,000 acres and across the highway.

Today, humidity was up and temperatures in the low 70s were forecast. Yancey said firefighters were focused on reopening the road.

He wasn't sure when that might happen, however.

"It's going to be a day to day thing," he said. "It'll be hard to predict."

He said the fire was nearing an area that had burned in 1984. He said an evacuation would be ordered if flames approached cabins on the other side of the burn area, about five miles away.

Another wildfire in Bighorn National Forest destroyed three homes and damaged several others last month.