Recent rains can be a double-edged sword when it comes to wildfires.

   While the rainfall keeps vegetation from drying out and the ground moist, lightning from these storms can start fires that can creep along undetected for days.

   Such was the case recently when a lightning-caused fire burned 124 acres over the course of a week in and around the Davy Crockett National Forest near Pennington.

   National Forests and Grasslands in Texas Patrol Captain David Norsworthy, who lives in the Pennington area, began to notice wisps of smoke around Highway 287 each afternoon.

   “There had been a lightning storm a day or two earlier and I knew there   had to be a slow-burning fire out there somewhere,” he said. “I just couldn’t find it because the wind kept blowing the smoke in different directions.”

   Norsworthy reported the fire to Bobi Stiles, fire management officer for the Davy Crockett National Forest, who spent several hours looking for the fire without any luck.

   “The high humidity would keep the fire smoldering in the early mornings and it would not flame up until temperatures rose in the afternoons,” she said. “It would burn until about 7 or 8 o’clock at night and die out when temperatures dropped.”

   The fire crept along for six days before putting up a column of smoke that firefighters found.

   Seven days after Norsworthy first noticed smoke, U.S. Forest Service firefighters were able to find the fire and extinguish it. According to Stiles, it took 5 ½ hours to put the fire out and because the area has   not been controlled burned since 1994; she said the fire caused severe stress on the trees.

   Norsworthy emphasized that even though the ground may be damp, fires can smolder and burn undetected for days before being found.

   “You had to stumble on the fire to find it; the wind was switching   around a lot and kept blowing the smoke in different directions. That fire burned 124 acres before it was found, but it could have been a lot   worse,” he said.