Glacier Wildfire Battle Continues

Fighting fire with fire, state officials scrambled to burn 2,000 acres of trees and other fuel from the path of a 12,000-acre forest fire threatening Glacier National Park and a nearby village.

Fire officials said the so-called "burnout" using torches and incendiary bombs was successful, as wind pushed it toward the main fire and away from the park's west entrance Tuesday. Combined with high humidity, conditions were perfect for the backfire.

Officials said they would know if the burnout will stop the advancing wildfire in the coming days.

"I'm not going to pull any punches," fire behavior specialist John See told about 300 people at a public meeting late Tuesday. "It's going to be challenging for fire behavior (Wednesday)."

See said the forecast for Thursday called for menacing westerly winds that could push the fire into Apgar Village and West Glacier.

Joe Stam, who is leading the team of firefighters, said by the time the winds come up, he hopes the burnout will have made a black line that the fire will not cross.

With wildfires burning in about a dozen western states, the initial impression might be that this is one of the worst fire seasons on record, reports CBS News Correspondent Stephan Kaufman. However, the news is not all bad.

"In 2003, we've now had 35,319 reported fires. The 10-year average is 51,955 fires, and that's year-to-date," said Jackie Denk with the National Interagency Fire Center. "We had 3,986,000 acres that had burned by this time last year. At this point, we're at 1,767,000, so it's quite a bit fewer acres that are on fire."

But she stresses Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana and Wyoming are not out of the wood yet.

"When you combine high winds, low relative humidity, and these extreme temperatures we're seeing, things could be shaping up to have a really tough week in some of those states," she said.

The Glacier National Park wildfire, one of three in and around the park, had burned across an estimated 12,100 acres. It was within 1½ miles of West Glacier and moving in dense trees and rugged hills nearly inaccessible to fire crews. Firefighters worried it would make another run because humidity was extremely low and wind was expected to pick up.

The three Glacier fires had blackened a total of nearly 50,000 acres, and were being fought by some 2,000 firefighters.

Sirens wailed on Monday evening, warning residents, tourists and remaining National Park Service personnel at park headquarters to evacuate, mostly because the fire was threatening to block U.S. Highway 2, the main escape route. Thousands of tourists already had left other parts of the park.

Amtrak's Empire Builder passenger train was bypassing the West Glacier station. Additionally, air tankers were dumping thousands of gallons of water onto the trees near evacuated homes and business to make sure the burnout didn't turn on the town.

One of the Glacier fires, near the Canadian border, burned six dwellings and threatened about 100 other homes and cabins near the North Fork of the Flathead River. Another threatened historic buildings in the park, including the Granite Park Chalet.

However, the park remains open.

"Most of Glacier National Park does remain open. In fact, two-thirds of it is open," said Denk. "Most people believe that the whole park is closed, and that's simply not the case."

In Washington state, firefighters battled wildfires burning more than 80,000 acres throughout the state. One lightning-caused fire that charred over 70,000 acres in north-central Washington burned through two wilderness passes Tuesday, dashing firefighters' best hopes of containing it before it reaches the Canadian border.

Wildfires also were active Tuesday in Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.