Officials stand ready as holiday progresses

Great Falls law enforcement and fire rescue officials said Saturday that the July 4 holiday was going well, and while that nothing catastrophic had happened, they were still bracing for the worse when the sun came down.

“It’s been steady, but it hasn’t gotten crazy yet, give it a few hours,” Great Falls Fire/Rescue Capt. Adam Marsh said earlier in the day.

Later, Battalion Chief Chuck Rovreit said the department had mostly received medical and heat-related calls throughout the day.

Fire and rescue crews were being kept busy early Saturday by people getting into the holiday spirit, as they had run on nine alcohol-related calls.

Marsh said four extra firefighters were added to the Saturday night shift to help with any fireworks related calls, should they arise.

A July 4 celebration almost took a tragic turn Saturday when Great Falls rescue personnel were called to a report of a 10-year-old girl drowning.

The report came from the 2800 block of Upper River Road about 8:35 p.m. and CPR was in progress.

Rovreit said the girl began breathing in the ambulance on the way to the hospital. She was taken to Benefis Health System for observation.

Meanwhile, Great Falls police reported receiving 12 fireworks-related calls between 3 p.m. Friday and 3 p.m. Saturday. Late Saturday, police officials said many of the calls they had received during the day were alcohol related and added they had still not had a large number of fireworks-related calls.

Fireworks, however, were blamed for a fire that burned about four acres of grass Saturday, officials said.

The Gore Hill Volunteer Fire Department received a call about 12:15 p.m. about a fire on Fawn Drive, Chief Carl Thrasher said.

He said the fire was caused by people lighting off fireworks.

Gore Hill was assisted by the Black Eagle Volunteer Fire Department, and it took the 10 firefighters about a half hour to knock down the blaze.

Thrasher said no homes or structures were damaged, but the fire was burning landscaping around homes. He said some residents were out with shovels trying to control the blaze.

No citations were issued.

But there was some relief on the way Saturday, the big question is will it arrive before or after fireworks.

A cold front is moving in, and should hit the Electric City somewhere between 10 p.m. and midnight, with temperatures starting to drop about 9 p.m., said Jim Brusda, meteorologist with the National Weather Service.

And it could make some noise.

“We can’t rule out a thunderstorm moving in ahead of the front,” he said.

Brusda said a rain could help ward off fires from fireworks, adding the humidity is at 25 percent, which is higher than the 20 percent critical mark, and the wind is “reasonable” at 10 mph.

He said the Great Falls area has a lot of brown grass that is either dormant or dead, so the humidity will have to be higher to have an affect on the grasses.

Brusda noted the grass fire south of town, saying “people have to use extreme caution. If the wind knocks your fireworks over, it’s too windy to light them. Don’t take the chance.”

He said temperatures will be in the low to mid 60s on Sunday, and suggested that Sunday was a more reasonable day to set off fireworks. He said it would be safer, wetter and a lot less stressful on people.

Temperatures will rebound from the 60s on Sunday into the 70s on Monday.

Either way, he urged caution.