ST. IGNATIUS – A Lolo National Forest heavy helicopter began dropping buckets on the fire Tuesday evening, said C.T. Camel, CSKT fire division fire prevention specialist.
Camel says the fire was likely started when a single snag was struck by lightning during a storm Friday. This would be the fourth lightning caused fire discovered due to that storm.
Fire managers have named this blaze the Walk In Fire.
(first report)
A lightning-sparked holdover that has been smoldering east of St. Ignatius for a couple days has now grown to one tenth of an acre, according to Confederated Salish-Kootenai Tribal fire investigator Devlin Lasrombois.
Three firefighters are now responding to the area after the fire began pushing smoke about 4 p.m. Tuesday, he said. The blaze is about two miles east of St. Ignatius and a quarter of the way up the slope of the Mission Mountains.
Lasrombois says there were many lightning strikes over the weekend in this area, and because of the location, they suspect this fire began with one of those strikes.
