The Valentine Volunteer Fire Department was paged to the report of a fire east of Valentine on the Simmons place off Nebraska Highway 12 at about 2:30 Thursday afternoon.

The fire was located south of Highway 12 about a mile east of the Niobrara National Wildlife Refuge boundary in the Niobrara River valley.  Valentine had requested mutual aid from Wood Lake and the Niobrara National Wildlife Refuge Fire personnel.  The SEAT plane was also requested to provide aerial support for this fire.

According to Valentine Fire Chief Terry Engels, the fire burned about 25 acres, mostly in trees in canyon area owned by Lee Simmons.  Engels also stated that as of Friday morning, there were still some trees burning within the burn area that are going to be allowed to hopefully burn themselves out.  Fire crews remained on scene for roughly 3 hours on Thursday.

There was a lot of lightning in a storm that rolled through the area Wednesday evening with limited precipitation.  The official precipitation at Valentine was only .03 inches of rain.

Area residents are advised to stay vigilant looking for any other smoke or fires that may have been sparked by lightning.