Fire crews make good progress on Glacier Rim blaze

When we passed the fire site at around 10:30 a.m. this morning, a small smoke plume was rising from the face of the ridge west of the North Fork Road. Otherwise, there was little activity evident.

Here’s what the Flathead Beacon had to report . . .

Update: June 30, 12 p.m.

Firefighters reined in a human-caused wildfire north of Columbia Falls on Monday but concerns loom from a series of thunderstorms that swept the valley last night.

The Glacier Rim Fire, located near the western banks of the North Fork Flathead River across from Glacier National Park, has burned 85 acres and is 30 percent contained, according to incident managers. Nearly 115 personnel and two helicopters are battling the blaze.

“We’re looking a lot better today than the start of yesterday,” Keith VanBroeke, operations chief for the incident management team in charge of the fire, told crews in the June 30 morning briefing.

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