Crews let interior of fire burn itself out

Crews have gotten a handle on the Glacier Rim Fire, which hasn’t advanced since breaking the line Tuesday and burning five acres.

The fire near the North Fork Road has covered 85 acres since it started Saturday afternoon.

“The overall objective is to let the fire kind of burn up the material inside the line and keep up after any activities that threaten the line,” Flathead Forest Fire Management Officer Rick Connell said Wednesday afternoon. “Letting the interior cook itself and burn itself out is a better strategy, because if we just keep dumping water on it, it prolongs the burning of that material.”

Connell said the approach was necessitated by the danger of falling snags that still stand in the area burned by the Robert Fire in 2003. Instead of advancing on the fire’s interior, the approximately 120 personnel from the forest, Montana Department of Natural Resources, Glacier National Park and Flathead County are focusing more on reinforcing lines around the fire.

Connell said firefighters are also working to get sprinklers installed near Canyon Creek, which heavy equipment is unable to reach. The incident management team currently has water trucks, fire engines, logging equipment, an excavator and a bulldozer, along with three helicopters, deployed at the fire.

With predicted temperatures staying in the 90s through the rest of the week and no rain on the horizon, additional flare-ups are possible.

“Over the next couple days the Weather Service is calling for winds to come back, and the peak for the week is on Saturday, which is going to make life a little interesting,” Connell added.

Since the fire began Saturday afternoon, eight separate fires spotted across the river into the park, but had all been extinguished as of Wednesday afternoon.

Residents of two nearby homes voluntarily vacated their houses. One of the homes was less than 200 yards from where the fire started, Connell said.

Reporter Samuel Wilson can be reached at 758-4407 or by email at swilson@dailyinterlake.com.