Smoke in the western sky over Missoula on Wednesday night was not from a Montana fire.

Depending on your vantage point, it appeared the source of the plume was somewhere on Black Mountain, Blue Mountain or Lolo Peak.

Staff at Missoula's interagency fire dispatch said the smoke was from a late-afternoon, 3-acre blaze in Idaho's Clearwater National Forest, about 10 miles west of Lolo Pass as the crow flies.

Missoula smokejumpers and two helicopters hustled to quell the fire before dark fell Wednesday evening.

Throughout western Montana, new fire starts showed up Wednesday afternoon as the day heated up.

In the Lolo and Bitterroot national forests, most of the fires were the result of lightning strikes earlier in the week. Two fires in the Frenchtown area that sparked along roadways and were put out by the Frenchtown Rural Fire Department were human-caused, said Sharon Sweeney, public information officer for the Lolo National Forest.

Although there are about 18 new fires burning on the Lolo forest, most of which are in Mineral County, all are relatively small - about a quarter-acre or less, Sweeney said.

"It sounds like we have a lot going on right now," she said, "but it's actually pretty quiet."

To the south, fire crews were kept busy tracking down new fire starts and small fires that began Monday, said Dixie Dies, public affairs officer for the Bitterroot National Forest.

There are three fires in the Rock Creek area near Lake Como, all of which are about one mile apart, Dies said.

A new fire was discovered about a half-mile west of Lake Como in the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness. The largest fire is less than 2 acres, while the others are spot fires.

All are being manned by six heli-rappelers.

Fire crews have been called to three other new spot fires, all less than half an acre in size.

Two of the fires are burning near Conner. The East Piquett Creek fire is near U.S. Forest Service Road 13835, about five miles southwest of Conner, and the Piquett fire is near Pine Creek, about seven miles southwest of Conner.

Near Sula, firefighters have nearly extinguished the Bear fire, less than two miles north of Tee Pee Point Lookout.

Southwest of Philipsburg, firefighters maintained the upper hand in their effort to put out the 300-acre Frog Pond fire.

Firefighting has been so successful, the operation is being scaled down and several crews are transitioning off the fire, said information officer Shannon Downey.

"We are pretty optimistic we can keep it at 300 acres," Downey said, "unless weather predictions are off and we get high winds and more lightning starts."

One of the biggest challenges ahead will be to retrieve all the firehose, Downey said. "It's estimated that the combined hose lengths is something like 15 miles," she said.

The cost of fighting the Frog Pond fire is currently at $1.2 million.

Reporter Betsy Cohen can be reached at 523-5253 or at bcohen@missoulian.com.