Ridge Fire near Marquette: last evacuation alert lifted for North Basin Drive, but trails west of County Road 510 stay closed

MARQUETTE, Mich. — Residents along North Basin Drive no longer need to be ready to leave their homes on short notice, after the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and the Marquette County Sheriff’s Office and Emergency Management lifted the “Ready” status they had lived under for a week because of the Ridge Fire.

The fire, burning about 10 miles northwest of Marquette, north of the Dead River Basin and west of County Road 510, was estimated at 466 acres and 50% contained in the DNR’s update Monday, Oct. 19. That is up from 434 acres and 30% containment in an earlier DNR update, The Mitten Daily reported. Its cause is still under investigation.

Why it changed. Rain and cooler weather let crews build containment lines to keep the fire from moving toward homes, the DNR said. A drone flight that gathered infrared data to pinpoint hot spots, along with fire behavior forecasts for the coming days, helped commanders redraw the trigger points for each stage of the “Ready, Set, Go!” evacuation plan.

“Although we do not anticipate the need to reactivate the evacuation protocol, we will continue to monitor the fire activity along each of the management action points and will act if necessary,” said Nate Stearns, incident commander for the Rugged Terrain Complex, the name for the three U.P. fires managed together.

Still closed. Hikers, bikers and hunters should note that the Noquemanon Trail system west of the County Road 510 trailhead remains closed. In Craig Lake State Park, the 606-acre Craig Lake Fire is 90% contained, but the park north of Craig Lake proper, the Teddy Lake Yurt and the North Country Trail inside the park stay closed through the end of October; the rest of the park is open. The 350-acre Black River Fire is 70% contained, and the DNR asks the public to keep avoiding the area. Lightning caused both of those fires, the agency said.

Who’s working it. Seventy-three firefighters were on the three fires Monday under a DNR incident management team, with help from the U.S. Forest Service, the National Weather Service in Marquette, Michigan State Police, county sheriff and emergency management offices in Marquette and Gogebic counties, the Keweenaw Bay and Bay Mills Indian communities and several local fire departments. The DNR reminds residents to check Michigan.gov/BurnPermit before burning yard debris or lighting a campfire.

Sources:
Michigan Department of Natural Resources, “‘Ready’ status lifted for residents near Ridge Fire,” news release, Oct. 19, 2026, https://www.michigan.gov/dnr/about/newsroom/releases/2026/10/19/ready-status-lifted-for-residents-near-ridge-fire
Photo: U.S. Forest Service, “Fire (20230624-FS-LC-030).jpg,” June 24, 2023, Wikimedia Commons, public domain, cropped and color-adjusted, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fire_(20230624-FS-LC-030).jpg

Upper Peninsula

Tags: Upper Peninsula · Marquette County · Wildfire · Ridge Fire · DNR · Public Safety