Howe Sadness: As cabins lost, inholders frustrated by response to fire

On Aug. 10, 2003 the Robert Fire burned Howe Ridge in Glacier National Park in spectacular fashion.

Fifteen years and one day later, Howe Ridge burned again, this time all but wiping out the historic Kelly’s Camp on the north shore of Lake McDonald.

No one was injured and no lives were lost in the blaze. The Park has closed the west side of the Going-to-the-Sun Road from Apgar to Logan Pass and evacuated all residents, campgrounds and the Lake McDonald Lodge.

After watching a video presented privately to landowners Monday evening in Glacier, cabin owner Regina McGee said her cabin and several others were destroyed in the fire.

The Park Service confirmed the losses Tuesday morning.

“Approximately seven private summer residences and additional outbuildings were lost,” the park said in a release. “Additionally, the main Kelly’s camp house, a second cabin, and other structures under National Park Service ownership were destroyed. One Kelly’s Camp home did survive the fire, as did multiple other privately owned homes and structures in other areas of North McDonald Road.

“The Park Services also believes that three outbuildings of the National Park Service-owned Wheeler residence, the Wheeler boat house and the boat house at the Lake McDonald Ranger Station were lost,” the release added. “The main Wheeler cabin did survive, after valiant firefighting efforts that saved it after it caught fire.”

The Lake McDonald Ranger Station was also saved, following a fire on its roof, the Park noted.

The Wheeler Complex, east of Kelly’s camp, was owned by Montana Senator Burton K. Wheeler, and was used by Sen. Wheeler and his family as their summer home starting in 1916. The National Park Service acquired the property in 2014.

“This is a heartbreaking time at the park,” said Park Superintendent Jeff Mow. “We’ve lost extremely important historic buildings that tell a piece of the park’s story, and multiple people have lost homes that have welcomed their families to the shores of Lake McDonald for generations.”

The Park is still doing an inventory and other structures may be lost as well, it cautioned.

The fire was caused by lightning Aug. 11. It was listed at 2,500 acres as of presstime.

Kelly’s Camp is named after founder Frank Kelly, who homesteaded on the shores of Lake McDonald in the 1890s before Glacier became a park in 1910.

According to the National Register of Historic places, Kelly built the cabins in the 1920s for vacationers. The main Kelly house, known as the “Big House” was owned by the Park Service.

It was the first to catch on fire, McGee claimed.

Neglected for years, it burned to the ground.

McGee said she is done mourning and says she’ll rebuild. She lives in Mississippi most of the year, but spends summers at the camp. She has a 16 year old son and they’ll learn along the way.

“I’ll make it happen,” she said. “I don’t care what it looks like.”

She said the alternative is to simply be devastated.

“I’m not going to live like that,” she said.

The fire started just above Kelly Camp. On Saturday night, residents said they first reported smoke to park rangers. A firefighting crew was sent to the fire, which was small at the time, but with the thick trees and downed brush they were unable to get to it in the dark. When lodgepole pine grow back after a fire, they often grow in what’s known as “doghair” where the trees are so close together they can number 10,000 in a single acre.

A dozen firefighters attempted to get to the fire again on Sunday, but were unable to get there safely, said Chief Ranger Paul Austin. The trees were thick and the flames were 10 feet in length with fire on all perimeters. They dropped down to the road and monitored the fire and some cleared the trail back to the Inside North Fork Road of hikers who may have been coming in.

Two CL-215s aircraft, also known as “super scoopers” started dropping water on and near the blaze Sunday afternoon, with little effect. They even soaked the ground behind Kelly Camp, inholders said.

Late in the afternoon and early evening, the smoke column from the growing fire tipped over, Austin said.

It sent an ember storm down the slope and to the east. Multiple spot fires started.

The area was evacuated. But some residents said they left on their own volition — they never received an evacuation notice from the Park.

“No phone calls, no knocks, nothing from the Park Service,” one landowner said.

Homeowners were also critical of the Park’s initial response. They openly wondered why aircraft weren’t brought in sooner. They claimed that if water drops had happened Saturday evening, perhaps the fire could have been stopped.

“If you can’t get at (these fires) in a short amount of time, they’re gone,” one resident said. “...There has to be rapid response of some type.”

That brought applause from the crowd.

The homeowners were, however, appreciative of volunteer’s and firefighters efforts in fighting the blaze Sunday night.

While the park evacuated Lake McDonald Lodge and the Avalanche Creek campground, structure protection crews from Flathead Valley fire departments streamed in to help. They had to pull back during the initial rush of the blaze. The North Lake McDonald Road is a dead end and narrow, with no escape routes. But once the wind died, they found through the night, Austin said.

By about 8 p.m. the fire was down to the lake shore, both on the east and north ends.

The next few weeks will likely prove trying.

“We’re 5 minutes in to a 60 minute ball game,” Superintendent Jeff Mow said.

There are fires burning in the North Fork that could further threaten homes and Glacier. The Coal Ridge Fire is burning on Coal Ridge about 5 miles west of Polebridge. It’s about 300 acres.

In the Middle Fork, the Paola Ridge Fire is burning near Essex off U.S. Highway 2. It’s 250 acres.

A type I team, the highest team of firefighters in the nation has been called in to manage all the fires by Wednesday. Meanwhile, Howe Ridge continues to burn, with about 60 firefighters fighting it, with two super scoopers and a helicopter dropping water on it as it burns the flanks of Mount Stanton and moves to the east.

The weather this week could help or hurt — thunderstorms are a possibility Friday through the weekend. They could bring rain, but they could also bring lightning, sparking even more fires.

The Flathead Valley hasn’t had any appreciable rain since early July. West Glacier broke a new all-time high temperature record on Aug. 10, reaching a high of 101 degrees.

Glacier is now in Stage II fire restrictions, meaning no campfires and no smoking outside of an enclosed structure. Self-contained propane stoves are allowed.

Editor’s note: This story has been edited to reflect a correction that Regina McGee is not a descendant of Frank Kelly.