Firefighters battle fire near Callahan Creek

Firefighters with the U.S. Forest Service are battling a three-acre fire in the Callahan Creek area southwest of Troy.

The blaze sprung from prescribed burns Forest Service crews conducted in mid-April. The area has seen little moisture in the intervening months and the fire was rekindled on Sunday when temperatures reached over 100 degrees, according to Dan Rose, forest fire manager officer with the Kootenai National Forest.

In anticipation of a potential flare-up, crews have patrolled the area off and on for the past 10 weeks. Firefighters responded quickly on Sunday using helicopters with buckets to attack the fire. Rose said ground crews put a hose lay around most of the blaze. As of Monday morning, the Forest Service had two engine modules and a crew of roughly 15 to 20 firefighters on the fire.

“It’s just indicative of the conditions we had all spring and are continuing to have this summer,” said Rose.