Missouri family tells story of escaping fire on Sun Road

A Missouri family caught video and photographs of the early stages of the Reynolds Creek fire on a scenic afternoon that quickly turned to the scare of a lifetime.

Larry, Saundra and Lakota Duncan, of Freeman, Missouri, were on vacation traveling throughout the American Northwest. On the second day of their stay at Rising Sun campground, they took the popular drive up the Going-to-the-Sun Road to Logan Pass. At around 1 p.m., Lakota said he saw what he thought looked like a small car fire some distance from the highway.

“We were looking down and it looked like a small car burning,” Lakota said. “It was small and look liked it could have been stopped.”

Near the top of Logan Pass, the Duncans told a park ranger about the smoke; she reportedly told them she hadn’t noticed or heard of any fire to be concerned about.

From there the Duncans proceeded back down the road toward St. Mary, an hour-long drive that led them to a crowd of cars now parked and watching the smoke billow higher and higher. Larry Duncan estimated 100 cars were parked at different lookout points surveying the smoke.

“People seemed amazed by it,” Larry said. “They were just watching like tourists, like we were.”

While watching the fire grow, Lakota noted a wind coming from the south, pushing the blaze away from the crowd of onlookers. Having seen enough, the Missouri family decided to drive back toward Logan Pass, away from the fire. But the same park ranger they first encountered at the top of the pass told them to turn around; the road had been closed heading that direction. Around 4:30, a truck rollover at The Loop had shut down the west bound route.

On the drive back toward the fire, helicopters appeared overhead. At around 5 p.m., Lakota began filming from his viewpoint in the back seat. The car is stopped at the beginning of the video footage, which captured flames climbing through the timber just 200 yards away. As the video progresses, Lakota urges his father to drive on, just as the fire erupts upward and visibly approaches the road. When the Duncan’s 2007 Ford pickup is gaining speed, the fire seems to follow them in the wooded gulch paralleling the road. The flames jumped the Sun Road not long after.

“It was just exploding,” Lakota said. “The wave of fire accelerated, and it was like it started chasing us.”

Despite a few hundred yards of distance from the fire, Lakota said he could feel the heat on his arm hanging out the window as he shot the video footage on a cellphone.

“Hikers were just coming out of the woods,” Lakota said. “We offered them rides, but they had seen shuttle buses going up the road that would pick them up on the way down.”

The video shows the Duncans passing three groups of people, along the road, as well as construction vehicles driving on the road’s shoulder. Emergency vehicles were flying up the road past them. They also parked a car parked alongside the road which they believe is the car that was burned when they fire jumped the highway.

Once out of the park, the family stopped near St. Mary to survey the fire that had spread to more than 100 acres by around 5:45. They took a few pictures and counted their blessings for having seen such a disaster erupt and come out of it safely.

“We were blessed, truly,” Saundra said. “Some people wouldn’t leave the area. You shouldn’t put yourself in that situation and count on someone else to have to come save you.”

•  The amazing video footage shot by Lakota Duncan has been posted on the Daily Inter Lake’s Facebook page.

Reporter Seaborn Larson may be reached at 758-4441 or by email at slarson@dailyinterlake.com.