Rapid Response and Monitoring For Glacier National Park Fire

With all the effort that goes into lengthy trips to one of Montana's crown jewels, tourists sure don't needed added stress.

So many people. The big investment of time, travel and money. Other unexpected occurrences. Which can include fires.

Glacier National Park officials reported a new fire start Tuesday evening (July 23) in the Muir Creek drainage of the park, southwest of Mount St. Nicholas. Estimated at 30 acres, the fire is four miles north of U.S Highway 2. The fire was immediately managed as a full suppression fire due to location, weather and limited availability of firefighting resources.

HELICOPTER RAPPELLING

Helicopter rappelers were flown in for the initial attack Wednesday morning. After setting up incident command, they directed airplanes' water-dropping operation when the fire was still at just 8 acres. But in spite of those efforts, the fire continued to grow.

Glacier National Park firefighters are monitoring and patrolling the fire, ready to respond of there are changes in activity.

BIZARRE BEAR ENCOUNTER

Way across the state, in an unrelated story near Montana's other national park, Brett French, the outdoor editor of the Billings Gazette, shared a man vs. bear encounter in the privacy of his living room (the man's). Brett tells us that Chester Evitt who lives in Gardiner near Yellowstone National Park, was sitting in his recliner watching TV last week, when a 500-pound grizzly bear knocked open his front door. The bear picked the wrong house and decided it wasn't worth it.

Mr. Evitt owns a gun shop and didn’t hesitate to grab a nearby pistol, and begin firing shots over the big grizzly's head. That was enough to scare it off, but that was hardly the end of troubles for the bear. You can read more details from Brett's article here.