One of 20 remote lightning-caused fires reaches 150-200 acres Monday
One of 20 fires caused by lightning in remote parts of the Kootenai National Forest over the weekend grew to 150-200 acres by Monday afternoon, prompting the planned closure of roads and trails near that and at least one other fire.
An earlier, less accurate estimate put the fire’s size at 1,000 acres.
No structures were threatened due to the remoteness of the fires.
Located about two miles east of Northwest Peak Scenic Area, the Davis fire was 50 acres Sunday night before it grew Monday, said U.S. Forest Service spokesperson Shawn Ray-Delmas.
The other two high-priority fires Monday afternoon were the Feeder and Porcupine fires, at 11 and 12 acres respectively, she said.
According to coordinates posted on the Kootenai Interagency Dispatch Center website, the Feeder fire is located about 10 miles northeast of Troy, and the Porcupine fire about 11 miles west of Rexford.
Location, terrain and other factors determined the priority given the three fires, Ray-Delmas said.
A Type II incident management team was on order and expected to be briefed by local fire management officers Tuesday morning before assuming control of the Feeder fire and possibly also the Davis fire, Ray-Delmas said.
Projected road closures for the Davis fire will start on Spread Creek Road (FS 435) to the junction of Whitetail Road (FS 5932), which eventually becomes FS 748 and follows Whitetail Road north to Pete Creek Road (FS 338), which the closure will follow north to the junction at the Canadian Border.
The projected road closure for the Porcupine fire will be FS 92 from FS 337 to FS 7206.
Projected trail closures will include Trail 169, Davis Trail 338, Rock Candy Trail 461, Trail 177, Canuck Peak Trail 724 and Garver Mountain Trail No. 8.
Firefighters were able to get a handle on many of the other lightning-caused fires by Monday morning, when five were contained and controlled and three were contained and awaiting controlled status, Ray-Delmas said.
Fourteen of the fires were one-tenth to one-quarter of an acre in size, she said.