HELENA, Mont. — Firefighters on Thursday braced for a fresh run by a wildfire that sent tourists fleeing from hotels and campgrounds in Montana’s Glacier National Park, while a blaze threatening hundreds of homes in Northern California shot flames 100 feet in the air.
Both states are ravaged by drought.
Rising temperatures and strengthening winds greeted newly arrived crews taking aim at the blaze in the Northern Rocky Mountains. It has burned more than 6 square miles along the eastern side of the Montana park during prime tourist season, when lodges and inns have been booked for months.
Some visitors packed up and left the region immediately after seeing smoke rising above ridge tops, while others diverted to different parts of the park. Officials said only a small part of Glacier’s 1,718 square miles have been closed.
The fire ignited Tuesday and swept along ridges near the scenic Going-to-the-Sun Road, the park’s most popular roadway, heading toward the small community of St. Mary on the park’s eastern boundary.
