Glacier Park says structures lost in Howe Ridge Fire

Structures at the north end of Lake McDonald in Glacier National Park were damaged or lost in the Howe Ridge Fire Sunday night, park officials said, but they have yet to release the number or type of structures.

A photo submitted to the Hungry Horse News by West Glacier photographer Sumio Harada appears to show a cabin at the north end of Lake McDonald fully engulfed in flames.

“A Flathead County structural fire task force provided a significant response,” the park said in a release Monday morning.

The park evacuated the Lake McDonald Lodge, the Avalanche Campground and was evacuating Sprague Creek campground today due to the fire.

The Going-to-the-Sun Road is closed from the foot of Lake McDonald to Logan Pass. Cars parked at the Loop will be redirected over the highway via St. Mary. The east side of the road remains open, as does much of the park.

But near the fire, a host of trails are closed, including all trails into Howe Ridge and Trout Lake, the West Flattop trail and the Loop trail.

A Type I incident command team to manage the blaze as well as others in the area is expected to arrive Wednesday.

A fire on Coal Ridge is burning in the North Fork about five miles west of Polebridge. It’s listed at 300 acres.

Off Highway 2 in the Middle Fork, the Paola Ridge Fire is burning Northwest of Essex. It’s estimated at 50 acres.

Glacier also has a fire on Heaven’s Peak in higher terrain, called the Heaven’s Sake Fire and one on Numa Ridge.

The Numa Ridge Fire is burning above Bowman Lake. The Numa Ridge trail and the Akokola Lake trail are both closed.

The top fire priority today is firefighter and visitor safety, the park said in a release. Ground firefighters are evaluating what areas of the fire are possible to contain with resources on hand. They will also establish trigger points that would prompt additional evacuations or warnings for other areas in the park. Suppression operations also continue at Numa Ridge and on the Heavens Sake Fire.

Marc Ducharme, general manager for Glacier National Park Lodges, which operates the lodges in the park, said they were able to find rooms for guests that were evacuated by working with the Whitefish Convention and Visitor Bureau. The employees were put up in tents. The company owns property in Coram that was formerly a campground.

All told, about 200 people were evacuated from the lodge.

This is the second year in a row the lodge has been evacuated because of a wildfire.

Last year the lodge closed Aug. 29 because of smoke and the threat of Sprague Creek Fire on the northeast end of the lake.

This time around, Ducharme said he was hopeful the lodge could reopen, as the prevailing winds are blowing the fire to the east of the lodge and away from it.