An extremely active lightning storm Sunday night that swept from west-to-east over Clearwater and then the north end of Adams Lake had staff at Clearwater Fire Zone scrambling Monday morning to locate and extinguish any fires, according to spokesperson Vaughn McCaig.
The lightning was accompanied by heavy rain in places, but it was spotty, he said.
Two fires were confirmed in Gollen Creek, which is located northwest of the north end of Adams Lake. Because of the steep and inaccessible terrain, rap-attack crews were to be deployed from helicopters to combat the blazes.
At the same time on Monday, an Initial Attack crew from Clearwater Fire Zone was looking for a fire that had been reported near Gannett Lake east of Adams Lake.
Several smoke reports had been received for the Jones Creek/Granite Mountain area southwest of Vavenby. A bird-dog aircraft was looking for them.
The only remaining fire from before the latest spell of cool weather, K10313, continued in the mop-up stage. The fire, which is located near the Otter Creek-Homestead road by Road 200, sprung up on July 8 and reached 32 ha before crews got it under control.
Hot spots continue to be found daily, McCaig said. A bird-dog Cessna was to assess it on Monday.
Two staff members from the Forest Service side of the Clearwater office have been helping with the forest firefighting efforts: Mark Taylor and Clint Fenton.
Clinton Reiter, a rehabilitation specialist from Kamloops, is helping with site rehab of fire guards and so on to prevent erosion.
Although the weather has cooled off somewhat, mid-July to mid-August is historically the busiest time of year for Clearwater Fire Zone and McCaig predicted the fire situation would remain active.
The campfire ban remains in place.
Forest Service compliance and enforcement personnel, plus conservation officers, are doing patrols weekdays and weekends, he warned.