Officials have determined a cause for a wildfire that broke out over the weekend at Bear Butte State Park near Sturgis.
Ray Bubb is the incident commander for the Bear Butte Fire and serves as the division chief for South Dakota Wildland Fire's Rapid City field office.
"Well, at this time, there were some individuals that were burning debris on private land in probably not the best conditions and the wind picked this debris pile - so, something in there got into the grass and just took off really quickly out of the point of origin and basically went up the hillside toward Bear Butte," Bubb says.
Officials with the Great Plains Fire Information Dispatch estimated the blaze at 150 acres as of Sunday. Bubb says since the fire went up the mountain, it's hard to map the exact number of acres burned.
He says firefighters had to battle that steep terrain along with cold temperatures to contain the blaze.
No structures were lost and the bison at Bear Butte were not harmed.
Officials with the South Dakota Game, Fish, and Parks Department say Bear Butte State Park land east of State Highway 79 is closed. The Bear Butte Horse Camp and the Bear Butte Lake Campground west of 79 remains open.
Officials say the Bear Butte hiking trail is closed until further notice, as park employees need to assess damage prior to reopening.