Updated: July 17, 11:45 a.m.
Additional resources are being deployed to fight a wildfire on the Kootenai National Forest in a remote area of Lincoln County.
As of Tuesday morning, approximately 80 firefighters and multiple aircraft were trying to douse the 20-acre Zulu Fire north of Libby. The lightning-caused fire was first discovered on Sunday and had grown to 10 acres by Monday morning.
Kootenai National Forest spokesperson Willie Sykes said that both helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft were being used to fight the blaze located in the Zulu Creek drainage, approximately 23 miles north of Libby.
No structures are currently threatened by the fire.
“They want to try and keep this fire as small as possible,” Sykes said Monday afternoon.
The fire is the first notable wildfire in northwest Montana this summer.
According to the National Interagency Fire Center’s monthly outlook that was published on July 1, there is “significant wild land fire potential” for the Idaho panhandle and the Kootenai National Forest in July. That potential could spread into the rest of western Montana in August and September.