Page 12 - Flathead Beacon // 8.5.15

NEWS
Residents of ‘Tent City’ Wait to Return to Rising Sun
Nearly 60 Xanterra employees were moved from the Rising Sun Motor Inn when the Reynolds Creek Fire blew up two weeks ago
BY JUSTIN FRANZ OF THE BEACON
CORAM – Just beyond the cardboard sign that wel- comes visitors to “Tent City” (Population 34 as of July 29), you’ll find a group of tiny temporary homes.
For two weeks, this tent colony has been home to a few dozen Xanterra Parks & Resorts employees who were removed from the Rising Sun Motor Inn due to evacuations after the Reynolds Creek Fire blew up on the east side of Glacier National Park on July 22.
While sites within the park are slowly reopening – the entire west side of the Going-to-the-Sun Road was reopened last week – the people here are still waiting for answers. Although some of them have heard that the Rising Sun Motor Inn could be reopened in the coming days, the National Park Service has not made an official announcement and the future mostly depends on what the 3,900-acre Reynolds Creek Fire does.
But before it was a raging inferno, it was just a thin tail of smoke lifting into the sky.
Colin Brehm is a native Chicagoan and the dining room manager at Rising Sun. He said soon after the fire started, visitors started showing him photos of the fire that at that time was still a few miles up the road. No one seemed overly concerned about the small blaze. But
soon after, a warm afternoon wind picked it up and ran with it, right toward Rising Sun. About an hour after the fire was first reported, park rangers told location manger Hallie Brown they were evacuating the area. By then, that single column of white had grown into a mass of thick, black smoke that blotted out the sun.
As concerning as the situation was, the second-year manager said she wasn’t surprised.
“I’ve lived in this area my whole life and I’ve never seen a June as dry as we had so we knew there was a chance that this would happen this season,” Brown said.
Brown pulled the fire alarm at the motor inn and employees started knocking on doors to make sure everyone was out. After the guests were gone, the employ- ees started to leave. Some had time to grab a bag full of personal items (one left with just his guitar), but most did not.
“(Many of the employees are from abroad) and some of these guys didn’t even have their passport or a change of clothes,” Brown said. “One guy didn’t even have his shoes. I’m not sure how that happened.”
After leaving Rising Sun, the employees headed for Coram – some in private cars and others in Red Buses that had been dispatched from Many Glacier to pick them up. Prior to their arrival, Xanterra managers in
Columbia Falls had rushed to local outdoor stores to buy tents, sleeping bags and any other supplies they may need.
That night, the employees rolled out their sleeping bags and they’ve been waiting for word on when they can go back to Rising Sun ever since. Some of the employees were reassigned to other Xanterra sites around the park (Tent City started with a population of 56) and others have been helping at the company warehouse in Colum- bia Falls.
Since the fire broke out, Xanterra managers have been allowed to go back into Rising Sun to grab some of the employees’ belongings, including passports. While everyone is curious about what will happen next, most of the folks at Tent City say the evacuation has been a memorable experience. And it offered them a chance to do a few things they may not have been normally able to do. This week they got to go to the Amazing Fun Center and go rafting on the Middle Fork of the Flathead River.
Jorge Beja is a dining room server from Spain. He said the experience is one he won’t forget and that it’s brought all of the citizens of Tent City together.
“It’s been a memorable experience,” he said. “We’re
Glacier Park Wildfire 67% Contained As of Aug. 3, the fire had grown to nearly 4,000 acres
all a lot closer now.”
[email protected]
BY JUSTIN FRANZ OF THE BEACON
More than 400 firefighters are still battling a mas- sive wildfire on the east side of Glacier National Park this week.
As of Aug. 3, the Reynolds Creek Fire has burned more than 3,900 acres of land on the east side of the park and was 67 percent contained. Fire managers say the fire will continue to grow, especially on its northern flanks near the Rose Creek and Baring Creek drainages. Two buildings have been destroyed in the blaze, including the historic Baring Creek Cabin.
The east end of the Going-to-the-Sun Road between Logan Pass and St. Mary remains closed, as well as the Rising Sun Campground and Rising Sun Motor Inn.
The National Park Service announced last week that the fire was most likely human caused and investigators are now looking to talk to anyone who may have been hiking through the Reynolds Creek Backcountry Camp- ground from July 21 to July 21. People are encouraged to call 888-653-0009 or email [email protected].
For the latest updates on the Reynolds Creek Fire visit www.flatheadbeacon.com.
[email protected]
Scorched trees along Going-to-the-Sun Road. The Reynolds Creek Fire is burning in the St. Mary region of Glacier National Park.
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