From the Sunday, July 30, 2006 online edition of the Missoulian . . .
The Glacier County sheriff's office urged residents here to evacuate Saturday, after strong winds pushed a wildfire in Glacier National Park toward town, park and fire officials said.
The Red Eagle fire, burning in mostly beetled-killed timber, was estimated at 765 acres at noon, "but it has grown dramatically since then," said Pat McKelvey, information officer with a specialized management team that arrived Saturday and was scheduled to take command of the fire Sunday morning. He did not have an updated estimate Saturday evening.
The fire made a "major run" Saturday afternoon along the south side of St. Mary Lake, said Glacier spokesman Dave Dahlen.
Numerous homes, businesses and outbuildings were considered threatened, according to the Northern Rockies Coordination Center in Missoula.
County officials were setting up a shelter at the Cut Bank Creek Boarding School five miles north of Browning, McKelvey said.
He said some residents had already evacuated, but he did not know how many. Dahlen added that the park evacuated its employee housing at St. Mary. The two referred further questions about evacuations to county officials, who could not immediately be reached for comment.
The blaze crossed U.S. Highway 89 just south of St. Mary Saturday afternoon, closing the road from Cut Bank Creek to Duck Lake Road, McKelvey said.
Park officials also closed Going-to-the-Sun Road from St. Mary to Rising Sun. Visitors could still access the park from other locations, park officials said, and Sun Road remained open from the west entrance to Rising Sun.
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