Rains set Sprague to a simmer

While rains have helped the Sprague Fire in Glacier National Park, firefighters continue working to stop it from reaching the Going-to-the-Sun Road.

The fire’s leading edge, along the flank of Mount Brown, was about a quarter-mile from the road. The fire saw about a quarter-inch of rain Monday on its north end and about a half-inch of rain on the south end.

Firefighters were going to put up hose lay and sprinklers along parts of the McDonald Valley Trail from the Sperry Trail to Johns Lake to try to stop the ground fire in that area.

In the higher elevations, where the fire is less active, crews were breaking down hose lays and flying out equipment.

The fire is now about 16,000 acres.

More rain, with snow at higher elevations is expected on and off through the week. Last week, rain and snow was expected on Thursday and Friday, but that never happened.

The wet weather stayed to the south and the east — Logan Pass saw snow, the Sprague Fire saw nothing. As a result, the fire was still slowly, but surely burning. It moved as primarily a ground fire about 100 feet a day.

The ground fire isn’t all bad, noted fire analyst Bruce Giersdorf. In the cedars and hemlocks it cleans up the dead fuels and most trees, as long as a dead stump or log doesn’t burn right next to the tree, will survive, he noted. He said the cedar-hemlock forest, which dominates the lower stretches of Snyder Ridge and Mount Brown, would like see tree mortality in the 10 to 20 percent range overall, with higher mortality in hot spots.

The forest makes it difficult to fight from above, incident commander John Thompson noted. The canopy is so tight aerial water drops don’t always make it to the forest floor.

Giersdorf predicted that a season ending event would mean about an inch of rain, and then another inch or more of rain a few days later to put the fire out.

That might not fully come until mid October, he said.

The area around the north end of Lake McDonald remains evacuated and closed to the public. The west side of the Going-to-the-Sun Road remains closed as well.

An evacuation warning for Apgar and West Glacier was lifted Saturday,.

Most of Glacier is open, and backcountry camping south of the Sun Road has reopened as well.

The Adair Peak Fire in the North Fork near Logging Lake, which isn’t being actively fought, is about 4,000 acres. The Elder Creek Fire along the border up the North Fork is about 282 acres.

It too, is not being actively fought and hasn’t shown any growth. Rain fell on it as well.