Rain dampens Glacier wildfire, access to Logan Pass expected July 29
The first major fire of the season wreaked havoc in Glacier National Park last week, but firefighters are cautiously optimistic they can contain the Reynolds Creek Fire and a semblance of normalcy can return to the Park.
Access to Logan Pass has been closed for the past week, though Park superintendent Jeff Mow expressed optimism the Going-to-the-Sun Road would open from the west side to the pass, along with popular trails like the Highline Trail, by Wednesday (today).
The fire, which is still under investigation, bloomed from the Reynolds Creek drainage about six miles from Logan Pass and raced over the Sun Road in a matter of hours the afternoon of July 21. It is now 45 percent contained.
Since then, the wind-driven fire has burned a swath of ground eight miles long from Reynolds Creek to Two Dog Creek at Two Dog Flats — about 3,170 acres total. The fire was not, however, a stand replacement blaze, said Deputy Incident Commander Steve Frye. It has burned in a mosaic pattern with live trees interspersed with dead trees.
Firefighters have been helped by two separate rain events. It rained on the fire Saturday and again Monday. Monday’s rain was heavy at times over portions of the fire, but at St. Mary, there was just .07 inches of rain. But the weather has also driven the fire as well. Firefighters have endured three “red flag” events, where high winds and dry conditions have pushed the blaze.
The fire season is far from over in Glacier and Mow dispelled the notion that Glacier was ever going to let the fire burn.
“This was a full suppression fire from the very start,” he said.
No one has been injured in the blaze, though a rental car left by a hiker was consumed by the fire and the historic Baring Creek Cabin was burned to the ground. The Rising Sun complex was evacuated quickly and no structures were lost.
The two main concerns now are keeping the fire from traveling eastward onto the Blackfeet Indian Reservation and from moving west, where it tumbles down the slopes near Reynolds Creek and then burns back up the drainage, threatening the Sun Road.
Both Mow and Frye said they understood the economic and social impacts the fire to surrounding communities.
Frye said the fire camp has been using local Blackfeet vendors for services whenever it can and has hired Blackfeet firefighters and fire companies. About 670 people total are working on the fire.
“We have some of the best firefighters available in the U.S.,” fighting the fire, Frye said.
Evacuation notices have been lifted on the west side of Lower St. Mary Lake. While visitor safety was one reason for closing Logan Pass from the west side when the fire first got going, another problem is sewage.
Pumper trucks that empty the pit toilets at Logan Pass go down the east side, because the road doesn’t have the large, twisting turns like the west side. They should be able to go down the east side by Wednesday. Mow said that if things go well, they would likely open the east side of the Sun Road to vehicle traffic incrementally, though there is no timeframe at this point.
He said he didn’t expect the east side of the Sun Road will be closed all summer long.
But several popular trails likely will be. The fire burned over the Otokomi, Siyeh Pass and St. Mary Falls trails.
Crews put a 4,000-foot line in an avalanche chute of the fire’s west flank using explosives, which they hope will stop the western movement of the fire.
On the east side, they’ve dug hand lines in the trees above the west end of Two Dog Flats, near Two Dog Creek. They also put water hose lines in both firelines.
But the weather won’t cooperate much this week. Temperatures are expected to reach the 80s and 90s with little chance of rain. Much of Glacier is still parched from an abnormally dry spring and summer.