Wildfire at Montana's Glacier National Park rages for fourth day

By Alex Dobuzinskis
July 24 (Reuters) - A wildfire in Montana's Glacier National
Park raged for a fourth day through heavy timber on Friday
during peak visitor season, while another blaze in Northern
California charred the mountains above Napa Valley wine country,
officials said.
The 4,000-acre (162-hectare) Reynolds Creek Fire in northern
Montana broke out on Tuesday and forced the closure of the main
road through the eastern half of the park, which receives more
than 2 million visitors a year.
Evacuations were ordered along a shore of St. Mary Lake,
with about a dozen people leaving homes in the area, said Robert
DesRosier, homeland security director for the Blackfeet Nation,
an American Indian reservation on the eastern edge of the park.
The Reynolds Creek Fire has forced the closure of the Rising
Sun and St. Mary campgrounds, a nearby motor inn and several
trails, as well as a 20-mile (32-km) stretch of the picturesque
Going-to-the-Sun Road which bisects the park.
The rest of Glacier National Park, which covers more than 1
million acres (400,000 hectares) in northwestern Montana and
straddles the Canadian border, remained open to the public. The
park receives more visitors during July than any other month.
The number of personnel assigned to battle the blaze had
risen to 300 on Friday, from 200 the day before, according to
the fire-tracking website InciWeb, which gathers information
from multiple agencies. The cause of the blaze remains unknown.
On Friday, firefighters at Glacier planned to battle a spot
fire near St. Mary Lake and complete a fireline around the head
of the blaze near a site where prairie ground meets a mountain
range, officials said on InciWeb.
Representatives from the team handling the fire did not
immediately return calls for further details.
Wildfires have raged across several states in the
drought-parched U.S. West in recent weeks.
In Northern California, the so-called Wagg Fire spanning
6,900 acres (2,800 hectares) about 75 miles (120 km) north of
San Francisco has prompted the evacuation of dozens of residents
from about 150 structures, said Shelly O'Brien, a technician for
the call center assigned to the wildfire.
The blaze is burning in the mountains above Napa Valley's
famed wine country, said Randy Johnson, a communications
coordinator for the Napa Valley Vintners. But wineries in the
area continue to receive visitors.
The Wagg Fire, which is 20-percent contained, has destroyed
one outbuilding and a tent structure.