Rains help with firefighting efforts

Rains fell on the Ridge Fire near Martin City yesterday and firefighters are planning to directly attack the blaze today where possible, fire information officer Ivan Huld said.

The Hungry Horse and Martin City area saw about a half inch of rain and even more than that in some places, though rainfall totals on the fire itself were more spotty, Huld noted.

Still, any rain and wet weather was welcome.

“The cold front wasn’t supposed to have any precipitation at all,” said Nicole Porter, a fire information officer on the Tin Soldier Complex.

At Spotted Bear, they received about a tenth of an inch of rain — far less than the Ridge Fire.

Today it’s supposed to warm back up and the next few days are expected to go back to hot and dry, fire officials warn. It’s also supposed to be breezy.

The Ridge Fire is just under 3,000 acres and the Tin Soldier Complex, which is west of Spotted Bear, is about 2,632 acres total over multiple fires.

The Bruce Ridge Fire is the most concerning of the blazes in the Tin Soldier Complex — it’s about 2 miles due west of Spotted Bear, so there is potential for prevailing winds to push it to the Spotted Bear Ranger Station and other ranches in the Spotted Bear Area.

Crews have been doing structure protection work in the potential path of the fire.

The Ridge Fire team moved its base camp to Hungry Horse. It has about 277 personnel on the fire.

They have established indirect lines on the fire’s west flank and were planning on doing more work in the north flanks of the fire today.

The Sidney Fire south of Marias Pass has shown no growth.

All these fires have large area closures around them, including the entire Hungry Horse Reservoir. A pre-evacuation notice is in effect for the east side of Highway 2 from the Spotted Bear Road to West Glacier.

For a complete list of closures, visit https://inciweb.nwcg.gov and click on the appropriate fire.