LANDER - A wildfire flared up and then was extinguished Monday afternoon near the area of the Wind River Mountains where the Rainbow Family of Living Light has begun to assemble for its annual national gathering.

The blaze burned about one quarter of an acre of wild grass and a tree stump near Dutch Joe Guard Station, about six miles from Big Sandy campground, 47 miles southeast of Pinedale and three miles west of the Bridger Wilderness, according to Mary Cernicek, spokeswoman for the Bridger-Teton National Forest.

The Bridger-Teton dispatched a wildland fire engine from the Pinedale Ranger District around noon Monday, Cernicek said.

"I was told federal officials on the scene were able to scratch a line around it, and hold it contained until the engine showed up," she said.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation, Cernicek said. The fire danger for the forest is currently rated as low.

"We thought it was too wet out for things to burn, but apparently the wind is already drying out some of the grasses there," Cernicek said. "The big concern was that all it was going to take was one of those 20 mile per hour winds to kick up."

Fire Management Officer Rod Dykehouse in a prepared statement reminded people that low fire danger "doesn't mean there is no fire danger."

"While some of the upper elevations of the forest are still under snow with swollen creeks, the vegetation is rapidly drying due to the recent spell of warm weather," Dykehouse said.

The Forest Service is considering elevating the fire danger to moderate in the next several weeks due to forecasts of hotter temperatures, Cernicek said.

The fire could have been caused by dry lightning, which had been reported in the area, or it might have been started accidentally by one of the estimated 1,100 Rainbow Family campers who have started to assemble there, Cernicek said.

Rainbow Family participants have gathered on public lands since 1972, and the counterculture get-togethers can draw up to 25,000 people.

Visitors to the forest can help prevent unwanted wildfires by thoroughly extinguishing camp fires, and being responsible with ashes and cooking stoves, Cernicek said.

Environment reporter Chris Merrill can be reached at chris.merrill@trib.com or at (307) 267-6722.