There was more heavy rain in the mountains Thursday, and there were more lightning strikes…
(Fires Despite Rain :38)
The US Forest Service says fires continue to be sparked by lightning in many places. They put out a small wildfire in Summit County that was touched off Wednesday afternoon, containing what was called the Meadow Creek fire to a small area of just a few acres. The Forest Service calls some of those “holdover fires,” where there’s adequate moisture with a lightning strike to stop a fire from starting right away, but when things dry out later, there are still smoldering embers, and they can still start flames going. Many of these also aren’t easy for firefighters to get access to, in remote areas. Firefighters say this year’s weather in the forests has created kind of a whack-a-mole game for them that’s much more serious, as they put one fire out and another starts nearby.