Lightning that passed through western South Dakota Tuesday evening, in some areas without any rain, started several fires. They all burned less than an acre except for two out in the prairie east of the Black Hills that became quite large before firefighters got them out. The Hay Canyon fire about 25 miles southeast of Hot Springs blackened 9,892 acres and the Wick fire 14 miles northwest of Oglala burned 7,765 acres. The Hay Canyon fire should be contained by 8 p.m. tonight. (UPDATE: the two fires, both started by lightning, burned together to form one 17,657-acre fire. Firefighters have stopped the spread of the fires.)
KELO TV got a few seconds of excellent video footage of the Hay Canyon fire. We can’t embed it here, but you can see it at their site. The photo above is a screen grab from the video.
