The U.S. Forest Service quickly extinguished a small wildfire that a lightning strike near Frisco ignited on Monday, July 31.

White River National Forest District Ranger Adam Bianchi said a crew hiked to the fire burning in a patch of downed lodgepole pines and aspens north of Interstate 70 near Meadow Creek the night it lit.

“They did a little bit of work, contained it, and then it was really wet hiking there, so they felt comfortable containing it for the night,” Bianchi said. “They came back the next day and finished putting everything out.”

Using a portable water pump, the crew declared the about 0.1 acre fire (about 80% the size of an NBA-regulation basketball court) to be “controlled, contained and out,” by just before 1 p.m. Tuesday.

The small wildfire is one of several that have started as Summit County has been bombarded by monsoon weather in recent days. In the past two weeks, Bianchi said, the Forest Service has responded to three wildfires started from lightning strikes.

“Lightning is interesting because when we get a lot of lightning strikes, sometimes we’ll get a lot of smoke and starts from it, and other times it might not be anything,” Bianchi said. “We’re lucky with all these strikes it remained very wet. Our fuel moisture has stayed high enough so that when these happen it hasn’t got much bigger.”

Summit Fire & EMS spokesperson Steve Lipsher noted that through the past few storms Summit County has seen hundreds of lightning strikes a day.

While it is not uncommon for lightning to start fires, it is hard to say exactly how many fires are started by lightning, Lipsher said, since not every fire started by lightning grows large enough that humans are alerted to it.

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Bianchi noted that wildfires started by lightning can sometimes emerge into larger events days after the lightning strike. The Forest Service has a computer system that logs the estimated location of lightning strikes, he said, so crews will continue to monitor for potential wildfire activity from recent storms for days to come.

“We’re out there patrolling and keeping our eyes out,” Bianchi said.