The perfect storm: fires sparked in, near Jefferson County

By Eliza McLaughlin, reporter

September 9, 2022

55f0897a9dfc018d91b148cbb14f9be7 — The No Grass Creek Fire had burned approximately 400 acres in the Deerlodge-Beaverhead Forest, just outside the Jefferson County line by mid-Monday. Photo courtesy of the Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forest Facebook page.

With smoke season darkening skies across the western United States, two wildfires have emerged in the last week in or near Jefferson County.

On the evening of Thursday, Sept. 8, officials identified a fire in the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest burning along the north side of Kit Carson Road. An employee for the forest service told The Monitor that evening that the incident, nicknamed the Lockhart Fire, had burned 2.5 acres and had “quite a few hands on it.” Both the forest service and local volunteer crews responded.

The Department of Natural Resources lists the cause of the fire as human.