The Sheep Mountain Fire located in the Rocky Mountain Ranger District was reported Monday morning at 2,282 acres and growing. Lewis and Clark National Forest Public Affairs Officer Dave Cunningham said the warm dry weekend weather increased the fire activity.

"With the recent continued dry weather that we've had following precipitation that we got back over the Labor Day weekend, things had begun to dry out," Cunningham said. "The fire began to show some activity Thursday, Friday and Saturday and the fire burned to the east. Oh gosh, we've had temperatures into the 80's and [as a result], the fire crossed the South Fork of the Sun River."

Cunningham said pre-evacuation notices were announced over the weekend so residents could be prepared if the fire were to continue growing.

"So what that means is that people that have recreation-type cabins or residences in the Mortimor Gulch, Sun Canyon, Gibson Lake area were notified of the fire and were told that they should be thinking about being prepared to evacuate," Cunningham said. "No mandatory evacuation notices were issued, but people were giving that warning. The fire would have to progress about another two miles to trigger that mandatory evacuation point."

According to InciWeb, 80 residences and residential properties as well as one resort in the Sun River Canyon area are affected by the pre-evacuation notices.

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