Reynolds Creek Fire doubles in size, frying Rose Creek

The Reynolds Creek Fire in Glacier National Park doubled in size on Wednesday sending a stream of smoke over the plains of the Blackfeet Indian Reservation.

The fire is now estimated at 4,000 acres. The cause of the fire has not been determined. It is burning in very dry timber that has been killed by insect infestations over the past few years.

The fire was burning from the shores of St. Mary Lake well up into the flanks of Goat, Going-to-the-Sun and Singleshot mountains on Glacier’s east side. The closest plumes appeared to be above Two Dog Flats, but it was difficult to get an exact location with all the smoke. The Sun Road is closed from Big Bend to St. Mary. The smoke wasn’t impacting nearby Many Glacier, however, and hikers reported clear skies and pleasant weather.

Judging from smoke plumes, the most intense portion of the fire appeared to be in the Rose Creek drainage up to Otokomi Lake.  Heavy helicopters were making water drops around the complex of campgrounds and buildings at Rising Sun.

St. Mary by evening was swathed in smoke in the lower valley. The KOA campground was evacuated and firefighters were taking up the vacant sites. Structure protection crews from across western Montana were streaming into the fire area to fight the fire if it got near homes along Lower St. Mary Lake.

The main fire camp will be at the Chewing Blackbones Campground. Aircraft were fueling up and taking off from the airstrip at Babb.

The bulk of fire resources had yet to arrive by Wednesday evening.

Glacier County Sheriff’s Office and Blackfeet Law Enforcement have evacuated the west side of Lower St. Mary Lake and may continue with evacuations on the east shore of Lower St. Mary Lake, the Park Service reported. The townsite of St. Mary is being evaluated for possible evacuation, but if the winds stay their course, the fire should stay on the ridge north of the town. Residents in town were taking precautions, like watering wooden shake shingle roofs, but people were still eating in restaurants and carrying on with daily life as best as they could.

The Park evacuated the employee housing area and administrative area at St. Mary Wednesday evening.

The Sun Road is now closed at the cattle guard at St. Mary.

Several visitors were able to retrieve their vehicles that were left along the Going-to-the-Sun Road due to fire activity in the area. One vehicle burned in the fire. fire. The historic Baring Creek Cabin near St. Mary Lake burned in the fire. No other structures have burned and no injuries have been reported.

Fire information phone lines have been established at 406-732-7791 and 406-732-7790.   An email account has also been established for fire-related inquiries at reynoldscreekfire@gmail.com.  The Inciweb website, http://inciweb.nwcg.gov/, is another source of fire information for the Reynolds Creek Fire.

The fire was first reported at approximately 3:45 p.m. on July 21 and was located near Grizzly Point, approximately six miles east of Logan Pass.