Two fires burning in Mineral County

Two fires were burning in Mineral County as of Monday morning. Bob Derleth, fire management officer for the Superior Ranger District said that both of the fires were caused by lightning strikes and were burning at less than a quarter of an acre.

"We've had lightening everyday for about four days now and these two popped up," Derleth said. "We actually are expecting more to be popping up as well."

The first fire, located up by the state line is burning in Cedar Creek, between the Illinois and Oregon Peaks. The fire was spotted last night. Derleth said that there are five people that responded to the fire.

"There are no roads leading up to the fire up by the state line, and so we had to helicopter people in to take care of it," Derleth said.

The second fire is burning across the river from Tamarack Hill, which is also the area which the River Trail runs through. The trail made the fire accessible to the ten people who were sent to contain the fire. The fire burning along the trail started on Monday morning.

"The fires aren't spreading real fast," Derleth said of their activity.

Fueling the fire is timber, both downed and in the forest. Derleth said that these types of small fires are what crews have been responding to lately. Crews responded to a call of an abandoned fire last week as well near Boyd Mountain over by St. Regis. He said that there hasn't been a huge fire in the county this season as of yet, but people need to be cautious. Derleth said that it's important for people to keep in mind that the fire danger levels have been set at high, which means that conditions for a fire are present and that it won't take much for a small ember from a campfire to turn into a raging fire.

"We are in fire season and we're going to have fires," Derleth said. "People need to be careful and need to take care of their campfires because if they don't take care of them then it could become a problem."

Derleth said that so far around 25 fires have burned in Mineral County this season, all of them being smaller fires.

"We've had several small ones," Derleth said. "It's nothing out of the ordinary. I'd say we're on the slow side of normal for this season."