Firefighters responded to a report of several trees on fire south of Wildcat Canyon Road (County Road 141) near County Road 210, about 2:20 p.m. Thursday.
“We believe it’s a lightning strike, our first of the year,” said Fire Marshal Karola Hanks, with Durango Fire Protection District. “It’s raining extremely hard right now in a very inaccessible area, so we’re monitoring it.”
The DFPD believes the tree fire is on federal land, and the appropriate federal agencies have been notified, she said.
“It’s not the first wildfire of the season,” Hanks said. “We had a couple of small fires alongside the road south of (U.S. Highway) 160, in the southern part of our district. Luckily, nothing decided it wanted to burn quickly and go somewhere.”
This may be the first lightning-strike fire of the season, but odds are it will not be the last.
“It’s been really warm recently,” Hanks said, “so it dries out the environment really quickly.”
abutler@durangoherald.com
