Historic cabins burn in Glacier blaze

Glacier National Park officials have confirmed that a number of structures were lost Sunday night as wind and extreme fire conditions caused the Howe Ridge Fire to swell to well over 1,500 acres.

The park on Tuesday said that approximately seven private residences and additional outbuildings at the historic Kelly’s Camp on Lake McDonald were lost in the Howe Ridge Fire on Sunday. Additionally, the main Kelly’s camp house, a second cabin and other structures under National Park Service ownership were destroyed. One Kelly’s Camp home did survive the fire, the park confirmed, as did multiple other privately owned homes and structures in other areas of North McDonald Road.

It is believed that three outbuildings of the National Park Service-owned Wheeler residence, the Wheeler boat house and the boat house at the Lake McDonald Ranger Station were lost. The main Wheeler cabin caught fire, however it survived the blaze “after valiant firefighting efforts,” park officials state.

The Lake McDonald Ranger Station was also saved, following a fire on its roof.

Active interagency firefighting efforts continue on the Howe Ridge Fire, with a local Type III Flathead County Interagency Team checking the spread of the fire and continuing to protect structures. A Type I team will be assuming command of the fire later in the week, park spokesperson Lauren Alley said.

According to Turner Askew of Whitefish, a member of the Clack family that owns five cabins just east of the North McDonald Ranger Station, the Clack family has invested in a fire suppression system on all of the family’s cabins that it hopes “will create a bubble of humidity that will cause the fire to go around us.

“Everything at that north end is in danger,” he said. The Clack cabins are roughly 1,100 feet from the Wheeler Cabin, and about 150 feet from the ranger station.

“We’re hopeful the fire suppression system will work, but the wind is supposed to change,” Askew said. “The sprinklers will run without anyone there,” but fire hoses at their cabins would need to be manned.

On Monday afternoon, two Canadian “superscooper” airplanes and a K-Max Type I helicopter dropped water from Lake McDonald on widespread spot fires and worked to establish a secure anchor point from which to fight the fire, Alley said. Multiple structural engines and wildland engine crews are protecting structures and working to suppress spot fires. Crews and engines will remain through the night to protect structures where they can do so safely. The fire is staffed with approximately 60 personnel.

Meanwhile, park visitors are dealing with having their stays abruptly upended.

A day spent adventuring ended in chaos for 23-year-old Bryce Boser of South Dakota and his roommate as they arrived back at their Sprague Creek campsite in Glacier National Park Sunday evening to see several historic buildings on the northwest side of Lake McDonald completely engulfed in flames.

The fire forced the evacuation of about 250 people from Lake McDonald Lodge and nearby campgrounds and private homes at around 8 p.m. Sunday.

Boser and other campers at Sprague Creek watched the fire spread.

“Just the whole hillside across the lake, it looked like a huge glowing ember,” Boser said. “It was really a surreal moment to come to such a beautiful place and to have to see that.”

Boser said a number of people stood lakeside as small explosions, either from fire retardant drops or propane tanks connected to burning structures, echoed across the water.

Campers at Sprague Creek were allowed to stay through the night, but Boser said sleep did not come easily. Sprague Creek Campground was evacuated early Monday morning.

According to Alley, limited local resources rushed to the scene for the initial attack Sunday morning, but wind and extreme fire activity prevented successful attacks by ground crews and superscoopers.

“We just don’t typically see a fire behave like this so soon after starting,” she said.

Evacuees were left scrambling to find a campsite at one of the other equally crowded campgrounds in the park or other accommodations outside the park.

Visitors arriving Monday morning from across the country and around the world met a hazy and limited glimpse of the park as park rangers blocked the intersection of Apgar Loop and Going-to-the-Sun Road, turning lines of cars away from the closed section of the scenic highway between Lake McDonald and Logan Pass.

Stanton Mountain had disappeared from the postcard picture view of Lake McDonald from the Apgar Village by daybreak Monday as smoke hung over the park and spread over the surrounding communities.

Upon hearing the news of the closures, several of the cars lined up at the West Glacier entrance to the park turned around and left, including three Mississippians who’d driven nearly 2,000 miles to be there.

Danny Barnes, Red Nowlin and Jimmy Parker said it marked their third attempt to go through Glacier Park, but they feared they would once again leave Montana disappointed because of the smoke and closures.

The trio makes a trip out West every few years to tour various national parks, but this year wildfire smoke prevented them from even entering California and threatened their venture through Glacier, the only national park they said they had yet to make it through.

“We may have to turn around and go back, but we’re going to go as far as we can,” Barnes said.

New York resident Gabriel Stachura and his family stopped for ice cream in Apgar Village after evacuating their campsite at Fish Creek early Monday morning, as well.

The family’s three young boys, Jules, 12, Liam 10, and Miles, 8, expressed their disappointment over the closure of the trails they’d hoped to explore that day.

Gabriel’s wife, Rachel, said they had driven nine hours from Yellowstone National Park to see Glacier and were sad to go so early.

On their drive out of the park along Going-to-the-Sun Road, the family glimpsed the Howe Fire eating away at the mountainside, snapping photos and videos as they left.

“It’s crazy, just crazy,” Gabriel said. “The haze is looming so you can’t even see the mountains as clearly as you wished.”

Marc Ducharme, general manager for Glacier National Park Lodges, which operates the lodges in the park, said they were able to find rooms for guests who were evacuated from Lake McDonald Lodge by working with the Whitefish Visitor and Convention Bureau. The employees were put up in tents. The company owns property in Coram that was formerly a campground.

All told, about 200 people were evacuated from the lodge.

According to Alley, without proper resources, the worst may not be over should the windy conditions continue, driving the fire through increasingly dry fuels.

She said that those hoping to enjoy the park, however, can still access other areas on the east side of the park, including Many Glacier, Two Medicine and the section of Going-to-the-Sun between St. Mary Lake and Logan Pass, all of which remain open.

“This is a great time to think about maybe a different adventure over in another part of the park,” Alley said.

Effective at midnight Monday, the park entered Stage II fire restrictions. No campfires are permitted in the frontcountry or backcountry. Smoking is also prohibited except within an enclosed building, vehicle, developed recreation area, or barren area three feet in diameter.

— This story has been updated to include new information from Glacier Park about structure loss.