Across Lewis County, more than 30 fires of various sizes have been reported over the last week. As of Wednesday, rain early in the week left five in the county that are being actively monitored and at least 23 that have been reported and named.
Many are thought to have been caused by lightning strikes igniting already dry underbrush late last week. Thunder and lightning continued to roll into the region early this week as well, so the Lewis County Division of Emergency Management hopes travelers to the woods will expect fire hazards beyond what has been reported so far.
In west and central Lewis County, the Washington Department of Natural Resources (DNR) has formed a complex incident management type 3 team.