More than five dozen sooty-faced firefighters worked deep into Tuesday night cutting a control line around 60 acres of Forest Service land burning north of Cortez.

Toni Kelly, a visitor information specialist for the Dolores Ranger District, said that a lightning strike on Sunday evening ignited the fire, but because of surrounding conditions, the flame smoldered for some time before spreading.

"This type of fire is what (officials) call a ‘hold-over’ from the last storm," Kelly said.

As of Wednesday morning, the blaze had swallowed 60 acres of ponderosa pine and oak brush at Ormiston Point in Dolores County — approximately four miles east of the Bradfield Bridge Recreation Area.

"The control line was completed around the fire’s perimeter by 11 o’clock last night," Kelly said Wednesday morning.

No structures have been burned or threatened by the fire.

She said that a total of 66 firefighters from the Forest Service, BLM, National Parks Service and Bureau of Indian Affairs responded to what is being called the "Cabin Canyon incident."

Cabin Canyon runs into the lower Dolores River at the Montezuma-Dolores County line.

"Fire crews have set up their base camp at Ferris Reservoir," Kelly said.

According to a Dolores Ranger District report, three separate aircraft were used to drop a total of 4,691 gallons of retardant on the blaze on Tuesday.

A single-engine air tanker or SEAT, with a 400-gallon capacity made the initial attack on the fire.

However, after the fourth drop, crews felt that the plane was not being effective, Kelly said.

The SEAT plane was later replaced with a larger, 3,000-gallon capacity C-130 which, according to the report, made two drops on the smoking inferno.

Also assisting with air support was the Mesa Verde National Park contract helicopter with a 70-gallon capacity.

Fire managers were not planning on using air support on Wednesday but said that some aircraft would be on standby if the need for them arose, said Kelly.

Firefighters are expected to continue to work throughout Wednesday at the ground level to ensure that the fire does not spread any further.

"Today, the crews are working on line improvement and mop-up and, barring any flare-ups, it looks like they have a pretty good handle on it," she said.

Kelly said, however, that as of Wednesday morning the fire had not been listed by officials as "contained."