Firefighters gaining control over Red Eagle blaze

By JOHN STANG

The Daily Inter Lake

Firefighters are getting the upper hand over a nine-day old fire that has covered much of Glacier National Park and the Blackfeet Indian Reservation.

The Red Eagle fire was considered 60 percent contained Sunday evening, compared with Saturday's 50-percent estimate.

Meanwhile, another two-square-mile fire south of Flathead Lake was expected to be totally contained Sunday evening.

The Red Eagle fire erupted July 28 south of Glacier National Park's St. Mary Lake and grew to 27,000 acres - roughly 42 square miles - by this past weekend. Slightly more than half of the fire area is in the Blackfeet reservation, and most of the rest is in Glacier National Park.

The fire has not spread since, though its still torches up near U.S. 89, which had been closed but recently reopened, said Karen Semple, spokeswoman for a firefighting team of federal, Blackfeet and Glacier County agencies.

"We're making excellent progress," she said.

The fire forced the evacuation of St. Mary, the Cut Bank Campground and the eastern Glacier National Park hiking trails. No one has been injured. Fire destroyed one abandoned trailer and two abandoned log cabins.

Firefighters are allowing to people to return to St. Mary and the Cut Bank Campground, Semple said. The speed limit along U.S. 89 is 35 mph, and drivers can find updated information on the fire situation at a big vehicle turnout south of St. Mary.

However, firefighters still have plenty of work ahead of them as they deal with a 52-mile fire perimeter with much of it in rugged territory.

Much of the firefighting efforts will concentrate on the fire's northeast flank today, Semple said.

Fire breaks will continue to be set up. Fire break lines within the fire area will be cleared out. Access roads torn up by firefighting equipment will be graded back into shape. Mop-up operations will continue in areas expected to flare up.

The number of fighters increased from 590 on Saturday to 622 on Sunday. When those numbers are expected to drop is unknown, Semple said.

So far, $3.278 million have been spent on fighting the Red Eagle fire.

Meanwhile, south of Flathead Lake, firefighters expected to have the Urban Flats fire totally contained by Sunday evening, said Rich Janssen, fire information officer for the Salish and Kootenai tribes.

That fire started Saturday a hay field about three miles south of Big Arm State Park, spread to the forest and grew to 1,300 acres. About 50 people from the tribal, Polson and Ronan fire departments are fighting that blaze.

No people have been injured, and no buildings have been destroyed in that fire.