In my travels this past weekend, I had just left Dubois, Wyoming and had entered the Shoshone National Forest when I noticed a large plume of smoke coming from the area known as Lava Mountain, just south of Highway 26/287. I had stopped to call 911 and to grab a quick video of what looks to be just the beginning of this fire.

Low humidities and winds of 20-30 mph fanned the flames to life after a recent lightning strike according to the Incident Information System for Wyoming. According to Inciweb, their main focus in fighting this fire will be to protect the structures in the area,of which in the video you can see many in the foreground.

Resources assigned to the Lava Mountain Fire include three heavy air tankers, two single engine air tankers, two heavy helicopter, two light helicopter, the Wyoming Interagency Hotshots, and seven fire engines with a strike team for structure protection. A Type 2 Incident Command Team has been ordered and will arrived yesterday.

This is one of five fires currently burning in the state of Wyoming including three in the northeast corner of the state as well as another one in the Shoshone National Forest just west of this one.

More From Y95 Country