When wildfires erupt it is all hands on deck, even when that fire starts late at night.
Late Thursday night a fire, the cause of which is a suspected dry lightning strike, started burning near Molt and on Friday the firefighting effort continued, as 15 agencies pull together to stop the progression of the blaze.
Interim DES Coordinator Kent O’Donnell says that the multi-agency response has been tremendous, and that he has been impressed at the effectiveness of the group effort.
Right now the roughly 450 acre fire is 50 percent contained, according to O’Donnell.
There are 18 engines on scene, being aided by two helicopters.
The air support was brought in to continue the fight, as the flames headed into rough terrain where engines had trouble following.
Even with the air support Lieutenant O"Donnell says that the bulk of the work is being done by hand crews and that a fire line has been established along the west side of the fire, which was an area of concern last night.
O’Donnell says that with the calm conditions on Friday morning he was optimistic about making progress with further containment, but that they are wary of the afternoon forecast, which calls for storms producing more dry lightning strikes and erratic wind gusts.
Much of the state is under red flag warnings for severe fire weather concerns and the county DES tells us that they expect widespread fire restrictions to be issued in the coming days.
