St. Mary Visitor Center to reopen
<p>Smoke from the Reynolds Creek Wildland Fire as seen from U.S. 89 south of St. Mary on Wednesday, July 22.</p>
As more fire personnel arrive to fight the Reynolds Creek Fire burning in Glacier National Park, improving weather conditions have led to the downgrade of evacuation levels in the park.
Fire officials, in assessing current fire behavior, decided to reopen the St. Mary Visitor Center at the east entrance to Glacier National Park, effective this morning. Going-to-the-Sun Road remains closed from the center to Big Bend on the west side of the Continental Divide, a total distance of 18 miles.
A mandatory evacuation for the west shore of Lower St. Mary Lake has been downgraded to a warning, and a warning for the east side of the lake will be changed to an advisory.
The St. Mary Campground, the Rising Sun Motor Inn, the Rising Sun Campground and Logan Pass remain closed to the public, although park officials are encouraging visitors to still come tour the open areas.
The fire, which sprang up along the west side of St. Mary Lake in the park on Tuesday, July 21, is at 3,237 acres and is 30 percent contained, according to Mike Cole, fire public information officer with the National Incident Management Team handling the fire.
“The fire is no longer growing significantly, but we still have the advisories for residents in place,” he said. “We laid down about 4,000 feet of fireline explosives on the west side of the fire from Going-to-the-Sun down to the St. Mary River so that was a good stroke of business.”
Cole said 650 firefighting personnel are currently battling the blaze, a marked increase from the 570 fighting the fire on Saturday night. Seven Hotshot crews with another on the way, several heavy helicopters and at least 21 fire engines are in use to fight the fire.
“The helicopters have dropped 985,000 gallons of water as of last night,” Cole said Sunday. “Usually there isn’t a lake right next to the fire so that’s a good bit of luck. Filling, dumping the water and returning is only about three to seven minutes, which is a very fast turnaround time.”
According to Cole some recent rain on Saturday has been helpful in fighting the fire, and a possibility of more today could be good news for firefighters. Winds remain a concern as the fire heads east and northeast with winds of 12 to 17 mph blowing southwest.
A historic patrol cabin near Baring Creek was destroyed by the fire, but that remains the only structure lost. The cause of the blaze is still unknown.
Reporter Ryan Murray can be reached at 758-4436 or rmurray@dailyinterlake.com.