From the Tuesday, August 1, 2006 online edition of the Daily Inter Lake . . .
ST. MARY — As smoke billowed through the burned aspen and bug-killed pine south of this small resort town, streets and businesses appeared empty Monday afternoon.
The Red Eagle fire, first spotted Friday afternoon near Glacier National Park’s Red Eagle Lake, was burning just a mile from town on its northern perimeter.
“A lot of residents and business owners are really chomping at the bit now,” fire information officer Shannon Downey said. “We’re getting lots of calls on when are we getting this evacuation lifted.”
Sunday night, about 60 St. Mary residents — most of them seasonal workers — were fed at the fire camp at the Chewing Blackbones Campground on lower St. Mary Lake.
A shelter had been established at the elementary school in Babb, but as of Monday afternoon, the school was empty.
So was St. Mary, other than fire trucks and water tenders that were tucked away near businesses and in driveways around town.
Normally at this time of year, St. Mary is bustling with visitors to Glacier National Park’s east entrance. But the explosion of the fire on Saturday changed all that.
Glacier’s Going-to-the Sun Road was deserted as far as Rising Sun, where a gate stops eastbound traffic. Also closed is the park’s Cut Bank Campground and surrounding trails.
The Red Eagle fire was still active with high growth potential Monday, but it appeared to have eaten its way through most of the heavy timber in its direct path over the weekend.
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