An early morning storm produced several lightning strikes in the West Kootenay on Wednesday.
The storm, which struck around 5 a.m., drenched parts of the Kootenay South region accompanied with heavy lightning.
“We had a couple of bands of lightning come up around the Trail-Salmo area,” said Ron Lakeman, weather forecaster for the Southeast Fire Centre.
Karlie Shaughnessy, Southeast Fire information officer, estimated that the West Kootenay area received “hundreds of strikes in 12 hours.”
Crews were mobilized late Wednesday morning to scour for potential hot spots in the Whiskey Creek area near Salmo. Shaughnessy added there were two small fires burning near Creston as a result of the lightning storm.
“The cell was fairly active between 5 a.m. and 7 a.m.,” said Lakeman, adding it also produced heavy lightning up towards the Balfour area.