Lightning flashed across the sky Tuesday night like a strobe light set on slow motion — sparking nearly a dozen tree fires around Montezuma County, including larger conflagrations on the Sleeping Ute Mountain and Wetherill Mesa.

The fire on the Sleeping Ute Mountain, deemed the Marble Wash Fire, was ignited at 11:06 Tuesday morning and had burned approximately 45 acres of Ute Mountain Ute land as of Wednesday afternoon, according to a Ute Mountain dispatcher.

The dispatcher said that several local BIA crews were working quickly on Wednesday to extinguish the blaze.

"Right now we have a helicopter and an air tanker from Mesa Verde as well as a SEAT (single engine air tanker) and two Type II hand crews — made up of 20 people each —who also responded to the fire," she said.

Brian Dixon has been named the fire’s incident commander. He is getting support from BIA Fire Management Officer Leo Lapaz.

Officials reported that the Marble Wash Fire was 40 to 50 percent contained as of 2 p.m. Wednesday and said they expected the fire to be fully contained by Wednesday evening.

Early Wednesday afternoon, a second significant fire erupted on Wetherill Mesa to the southwest of where the Bircher Fire had left off. The new blaze was also the result of one of the county’s many lightning strikes.

The size of the fire could not be determined as of press time on Wednesday. However, several local fire departments had dispatched brush trucks and tankers to fight the flames.

Onlookers said that the fire tripled in size in a matter of 15 minutes and was being fueled by a dense mix of piñon and juniper trees.