Firefighters contained two small fires north of Interstate 84 near Durkee on Thursday night, June 19.

The Water Hole Fire was about 3 miles north of Durkee. It burned 0.29 acres, according to the BLM’s Vale District dispatch. The fire was controlled at 7:30 a.m. on Friday, June 20, said Larisa Bogardus, public affairs officer for the Vale District.

The Pritchard Creek Fire, about 3 miles northwest of Durkee, burned half an acre. It was controlled at 12:30 a.m. Friday, Bogardus said.

The cause isn’t listed for either blaze, but Bogardus said a thunderstorm moved through the area Thursday night. Lightning detection maps show downstrikes in the area Thursday night.

Both fires were reported around 9 p.m., according to the Baker County Sheriff’s Office Dispatch log. The Burnt River Rangeland Fire Protection Association and BLM firefighters worked on both blazes, Bogardus said. Both fires were on public land managed by BLM, she said.

The Water Hole Fire was about 1.5 miles north of the freeway, west of Iron Mountain Road and east of Pritchard Creek.

The Pritchard Creek Fire was less than half a mile north of the freeway, and just west of Hindman Road and Pritchard Creek.

The fires were about a mile apart.

A third fire, several miles to the west of Durkee, and south of the freeway, was reported at 9:52 p.m., according to the Blue Mountain Interagency Dispatch Center in La Grande. There was no other information about that fire, which according to the dispatch center’s map was near Kitchen Creek, about 7 miles west of Durkee.

The National Weather Service is forecasting much cooler weather, with a chance of rain, for Friday and Saturday. There is also a chance of thunderstorms on Saturday, which is likely to be the coolest day in the area since May 20, with a high around 60 in Baker City.

The high temperature was above average at the Baker City Airport every day from June 3-19.

This has been the driest spring at the Baker City Airport since at least 1944. The rainfall total from March 1 through May 31 was 1.24 inches, which is 41% of the average for the three-month period, which is 3 inches.

Through June 19, the rainfall total for June was 0.06 of an inch. June on average is the second-wettest month at the airport, with an average total of 1.24 inches. May is statistically the dampest month, with an average of 1.42 inches.