Raging wildfires are continuing to tear across the West as high winds drive the inferno towards a century-old hotel.
The Lake McDonald Lodge, a 103-year-old Swiss chalet-style hotel, is under threat as hot, windy conditions continue to hamper firefighters.
A 14-square-mile area of Montana’s Glacier National Park has been evacuated as the fire blazes its destructive path towards the shores of the lake.
The Lake McDonald Lodge sits on a lake as the Going-to-the-Sun-Road begins its vertigo-inducing climb up the Continental Divide
The Lake McDonald Lodge sits on a lake as the Going-to-the-Sun-Road begins its vertigo-inducing climb up the Continental Divide.
On Monday, fire crews got bad news: The wind had shifted and gusts were driving the fire down the mountainside toward the lake’s shores.
Losing Lake McDonald Lodge on top of the destruction of Sperry Chalet last week would be ‘unimaginably devastating,’ said historian Mark Hufstetler.
‘These are some of the most remarkable buildings anywhere in the United States and they are an integral part of the Glacier experience and the Glacier tradition,’ Hufstetler said.
Fire crews understood the significance of the lodge and were ready to protect it, said fire information officer Diane Sine.
‘It’s important to all of us and a very high priority to do whatever we can to preserve that,’ she said.
The Lake McDonald Lodge, a 103-year-old Swiss chalet-style hotel, is under threat as hot, windy conditions continue to hamper firefighters
On Monday, fire crews got bad news: The wind had shifted and gusts were driving the fire down the mountainside toward the lake’s shores. Picture inside the hotel
Outside California’s Yosemite National Park, a wind-fueled fire made its way deeper into a grove of 2,700-year-old giant sequoia trees.
Officials said the fire had gone through about half the grove, and had not killed any trees.
Giant sequoias are resilient and can withstand low intensity fires.
The blaze burned low-level brush and left scorch marks on some big trees that survived, said Cheryl Chipman, a fire information officer.
‘They have thick bark and made it through pretty well,’ Chipman said.
Tatiana Weed walks to work in Missoula, Montana. as smoke from the nearby Lolo Peak Fire fills the air on Monday
A bicyclist makes his way down Higgins Avenue in Missoula as smoke from the nearby Lolo Peak Fire fills the air on Monday
There are about 100 giant sequoias in the grove, including the roughly 24-story-high Bull Buck sequoia, one of the world’s largest.
Fire crews also wrapped 19th-century cabins in shiny, fire-resistant material to protect them from the flames.
The fire threatening the grove was one of several in the area – one of which closed some trails in Yosemite.
A road leading to the park’s southern entrance was also closed.
Brenda Negley woke up Monday in her Oakhurst home 14 miles away and found her truck covered with ash.
A fire engine drives past a burned area from a wildfire Monday in the Sunland-Tujunga section of Los Angeles
Kate Kevern guards from dangerous smoke with a mask rated for construction work as she walks home through downtown Eugene, Ore.
Her mother was there, too, after evacuating her own home, but Negley’s thoughts were with the peaceful and secluded grove that she has regularly visited since childhood.
‘I’ve been sick with worry over Nelder Grove,’ she said.
‘As much as Nelder Grove is my home, and I don’t want to lose my home, I want to save my mom’s home and everyone else’s home.’
Elsewhere in Northern California, a fire destroyed 72 homes and forced the evacuation of about 2,000 people from their houses.
Home owner Craig Bolleson surveys the charred debris left in his burned out home in the Sunland-Tujunga section of Los Angeles
Friends of the home owner survey the charred debris left in a burned out home on Monday
The fire has burned 14 square miles (36 square kilometers) in the community of Helena about 150 miles south of the Oregon line.
In Los Angeles, a fire that destroyed four homes and threatened hillside neighborhoods is no longer actively burning, but firefighters remained at the scene in case the wind reignited the blaze, Fire Department Chief Ralph Terrazas said.
Still, Terrazas said Monday that wind conditions could re-ignite the blaze, so fire officials were not reducing the number of firefighters at the scene.