Wildfires crop up after lightning storm

Fire crews with multiple regional agencies battled numerous wildfires and conducted smoke checks in the west end of Shoshone County and eastern parts of Kootenai County.

According to Idaho Department of Lands, the largest incident was the Mission Flats fire, spanning 60 acres, located near Interstate 90 milepost 36.

Early indications suggested the fire was caused by the early Wednesday morning lightning/wind storm.

Fire crews, consisting of personnel from Shoshone County Fire District 1, 2, 3, the U.S. Forest Service, and IDL, kept the blaze from jumping Interstate 90 to the north and the Coeur d'Alene River to the south/southeast.

A command post was established at the Cataldo boat launch to ensure that no damage comes to the Cataldo Mission.

As of 12:05 p.m. Wednesday, the state park was threatened, but in no immediate danger.

The Idaho Transportation Department shut down a single eastbound lane of I-90 near the Mission Flats fire. The lane was eventually reopened.

The fire was responsible for the majority of the smoke in the area and prompted several false fire reports in places where smoke lingered. As of noon, the air quality at the Pinehurst air monitoring station was 147, which means it was squarely in the realm of unhealthy for sensitive groups.

A real-time report can be found at www.airquality.deq.idaho.gov.

Other smaller fires that had assets on-scene and/or were contained include the Lake Gulch fire near Killarney Lake (controlled at 0.1 acres), the Fourth of July fire near the Rose Lake junction (controlled), the Graham Ridge fire west of Prichard, and the Graham Complex fires northeast of Prichard.

Ground and air units were being used on nearly all incidents.