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Bolts from the black Mail Tribune / Steve Johnson To most Rogue Valley residents, Monday night's thunderstorm simply provided a sky full of lightning and thunder. But the storm kept firefighters hopping, chasing reports of smoke and lightning strikes. This photo was shot about 10 p.m. Monday on Cherry Lane in east Medford. Lightning, smoke reports, lots of little blazes keep firefighters hopping From staff and wire reports Wind and more lightning kept firefighters and lookouts busy Tuesday, chasing seemingly endless reports of smoke rising from Southern Oregon forests. A fire that briefly threatened the Ashland watershed ended with the quick response of firefighters and a little rain that helped crews battle other small wildfires around the state. "We worked all night getting it lined and cooled down," said Fred Way, a U.S. Forest Service biologist. Way and a crew of fellow biologists were the first on the scene. They were returning from field work in the Ashland watershed about 9:30 p.m. Monday when they were called to a fire started by lightning near Bull Gap, about five miles south of Ashland. "It was pretty intense when we got there," Way said. "If we hadn't had a little moisture from the thunderstorm, it could have been really bad." The Oregon Department of Forestry reported 10 fires burning on state-protected lands Tuesday, while federal lands had at least 16 blazes. The majority were less than a quarter-acre in size, officials said. More than 2,000 lightning strikes were recorded in Klamath and Lake counties alone, officials said. The largest fire in Southern Oregon was four acres in the Rogue River National Forest area. In Southern Oregon and Northern California, crews scrambled Monday to extinguish several fires: * Jackson County - Firefighters worked for an hour Tuesday to control a half-acre grass fire at the 1900 block of Talent Avenue around 9:52 a.m. A District 5 spokesman said he suspected sparks from a southbound freight train started the blaze. No structures were damaged and no one was injured. Firefighters chased frequent reports of smoke and followed up on lightning strikes. There were small fires reported in Colestine Valley in southern Jackson County. No other significant fires were reported. * Josephine County - Firefighters contained a grass fire within an hour that threatened one structure around 9:05 a.m. on Galice Road near the Galice Resort on Tuesday. Federal, state and local firefighters were still fighting 29 small grass fires Tuesday night in Josephine County after containing 10. The fires, between a 10th- to a quarter-acre each, were most likely caused by lightning, said Dennis Turco of the Grants Pass Interagency Fire Center. * Siskiyou County - About 42 lightning fires were ignited Monday around 6 p.m. following storms. Crews were expected to work through the night. No further information was available at press time. Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.