Brush Creek Fire rages

Firefighters were pulled away from Tally Lake blaze

A forest fire almost 30 miles west of the Flathead Valley sprouted up Sunday into a huge blaze, causing firefighters to retreat and regroup.

The Brush Creek Fire near Tally Lake began as a two-acre fire Friday, grew to 50 acres late Saturday evening and exploded to more than 600 acres by midafternoon Sunday.

Winds tossed flaming brush as far as a quarter mile ahead of the rest of the fire, which is heading northeast.

"It's still marching on," said Flathead National Forest spokeswoman Teresa Wenum.

A towering plume of smoke from the fire could be seen from Kalispell as late as 9 p.m.

For safety reasons, firefighters were pulled away from this fire and the nearby, much smaller Shepherd Fire as plans are being mapped out to deal with the new situation, Wenum said. A Type II firefighting management team is being brought in, she said.

Tanker planes dropped retardant on the flames.

The U.S. Forest Service has shut down the Sylvia Lake Campground four miles east of the fire, as well as two nearby Forest Service roads.

No buildings were threatened Sunday.

Here is how other area forest fires are unfolding:

. Roughly 24 miles of U.S. 2 over Marias Pass were reopened Sunday with vehicles escorted between East Glacier and the Middle Fork Campground just outside of Glacier National Park as the Skyland Fire burns.

However, traffic can expect to be delayed as long as two hours, and the highway could be quickly reclosed, the Forest Service said. The Summit Station Lodge remains closed and evacuated with flames within one mile of it.

The 5,000-acre Skyland Fire is about three miles south of Marias Pass. However, flames have crept within a half mile of U.S. 2 in spots. And the fire's front about one mile east of the Continental Divide on Sunday afternoon Is slowly moving northeast.

While the Brush Creek Fire put up a plume to the west of the Flathead Valley, the Skyland Fire also send a towering pyrocumulus cloud into the sky to the east above the Swan Range on Sunday afternoon.

Officials recommend using Going-To-The-Sun Road in Glacier Park as an alternate route to U.S. 2, cautioning that there is a 21-foot limit on the total length of vehicles and trailers using that road.

Lightning started this fire July 23. It increased from 420 acres to 1,000 acres Saturday and was last estimated at 5,000 acres Sunday.

No other structures besides the Summit Station were threatened, but officials in Pondera County asked residents of Heart Butte to be prepared to evacuate. The community of about 700 people is about 18 miles southeast of the blaze.

"We're not going to call for an evacuation until it gets within 10 miles, so we've got some time, we just don't want to have to pull a surprise on everyone in the middle of the night," said Clete Gregory, the county's disaster and emergency services director.

. A Spokane-based federal CL-215 "firebomber" plane spent much of Sunday scooping water out of Elmo Bay in Flathead Lake to drop on the 3,045-acre Garceau Fire, 11 miles southwest of Polson.

This twin-engine plane can scoop as much as 1,400 gallons of water in 10-12 seconds. It is capable of dropping 75-125 loads of water a day if a fire is nearby.

Helicopters also are dropping water and retardant on the flames.

Firefighters are trying to get that plane for the Garceau Fire again today, said Jill Cobb, information officer for that effort managed by a Type II incident team. Two Type II "hotshot teams" dug a new half-mile-long line at the northwestern corner of the Garceau Fire on Sunday.

The fire did not spread Sunday, and remains about 50 percent contained. However, the fire's northern segment is threatening trees earmarked for a timber sale. The fire began Tuesday.

Firefighters are bracing for shifting, gusty winds today, which are expected to complicate their work.

- The Associated Press contributed to this story