Glacier Wildfire Evacuation

EDITED 07/23/15 to add pictures.

Ugh – this is my third attempt!

This will be a short post – the ghastly wifi here ate my first attempt at this post last night and I had to rewrite! (And it still didn’t go through. I hope the third time’s the charm!)

My lodge went on full evacuation/abandon ship status yesterday afternoon. I was the guard on duty so I helped handle getting everybody out.

The winds were very strong…and heading and feeding the flames right for the lodge. We watched the plumes grow bigger and darker.

Getting smoky. The mountains are obscured.

The smoke was starting to get darker.

The Park Service upped the evacuation status to “ASAP!”

Ms. Vandura waits patiently as the plumes get yet darker.

Ashes were raining down on me when the property manager told me to “Go, now.” We had stayed behind with a handful of employees tying up what loose ends we could and doing final sweeps.

The ridge directly above the lodge just after the evacuation and just before the rest of us got out.

Update: Still spreading. The area directly across from our current campground has now also been evacuated. The fire is encompassing 2,000 acres from what I was told and the wind is again strong today and headed right for us. We’re on standby status.

The smoke hanging over the campground the night of the lodge evacuation.

A smoky sunset at the campground.

Update: Had awakened with a large migraine-type headache and blowing blood into a tissue from smoke irritation. We had to abandon campground. The fire so far has grown to over 4,000 acres, destroyed a historic cabin and fried a vehicle left behind by a backpacker.