USFS eyes Gleason Mt. fire

NORDMAN — U.S. Forest Service officials are keeping tabs on a small wildfire that was discovered a mile south of a Gleason Mountain.

“It’s up to about 8 acres,” said Shoshana Cooper, spokeswoman for the Idaho Panhandle National Forests said on Monday.

The fire is located on the Priest Lake Ranger District in Washington state. It was detected on Friday, although it’s believed to have been started by a lightning strike around July 15.

“There was a lot of brush, but not a lot of heavy fuels so it was just smoldering and then it finally got enough smoke for us to detect it,” said Cooper.

Aerial observations of the fire indicate it was not burning aggressively and it is amid sparse fuels, which poses low probability of spreading.

The Priest Lake Ranger District is actively monitoring the fire and identifying points to engage if its behavior changes.

Cooper said fuel modeling is being conducted and the fire is being monitored from the air.

“It’s a pretty remote area,” she said.

If the fire escalates, Cooper said the Forest Service will post updates to Inciweb (http://inciweb.nwcg.gov/), an online interagency all-risk incident information management system.

The public is advised to avoid the Gleason Mountain area for the time being.