A lightning strike from a storm on September 3 in Jasper National Park (JNP) is believed to be the cause of a small wildfire that was spotted on Saturday (Sept. 13) on the lower slopes of Chetamon Peak near the mouth of the Snaring River. The fire was discovered by fire operations specialist Randy Fingland around 5pm on Sunday as he was flying over to the Mt. Cumnock wildfire. Fingland had flown over the area many times that day and in the previous few weeks without any sign of fire, leading to believe a lightning strike hit the ground and started a smoldering underground fire which couldn’t be seen.

“It was absolutely undetectable. We know that because going over to the Mt. Cumnock wildfire every day, we fly over that area,” says JNP fire communications officer Kim Weir. “It can smolder underground for quite some time and then the hot dry weather can bring it to life.”

The fire was about one quarter of a hectare when spotted and a helicopter was used immediately to bucket water over it. On Monday, a ground crew worked to make sure it was totally extinguished.

Weir says the fact that the fire was from a lightning strike way back on Sept. 3 just reinforces the idea that with the hot, dry weather we are having Parks Canada will continue to monitor for further holdover fires.

The Mt. Cumnock fire continues to burn but is remaining within the perimeter, burning up smaller hotspots inside the contained area.

They did have a crew in there working for a number of days to make sure that the control line was really solid, Weir says, and the smoke you see now is just from unburned islands of vegetation, or burning along the western perimeter where there is no possible threat to any people or facilities.

Over the weekend the heat brought some of the smoke up later in the day and drivers on Highway 16 near Jasper Lake could see it in the distance.