An investigation has determined two juveniles playing with fire caused Saturday’s Red Lakes Fire on the South Fork side of Cedar Mountain, Park County Fire Marshal Russ Wenke said Tuesday.

“Because they are juveniles, we will not be releasing any additional information,” he said.

Wenke said someone launched a remote-controlled airplane during the fire.

“Luckily, a woman who knows how serious this can be for our air resources asked the gentleman to land the drone, and he did,” Wenke said. “If a drone is observed over the incident, all of the air resources are grounded until we can verify the drone is no longer in the area. If we had lost the air support the outcome of this incident would have been much worse.”

A fire on Cedar Mountain southwest of Cody Saturday prompted a call for additional firefighting resources when it grew quickly and threatened property and infrastructure along the South Fork of the Shoshone River.

The human-caused fire was reported at 1:17 p.m. near 167 Road 6WX. It consumed about 145 acres along the South Fork before crews from the Cody Volunteer Fire Department, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and the Shoshone National Forest extinguished it Saturday night, said Park County Fire Marshal Russ Wenke.

Dubbed the Red Lakes Fire, the blaze threatened two homes as well as the Shoshone Water Treatment Plant and several communication towers for law enforcement, radio stations and cell phone companies, Wenke said.

The Cody Volunteer Fire Department sent seven trucks and 28 firefighters and Park County provided a bulldozer, but some areas were so steep and rocky that men and equipment couldn’t get to them to fight the fire, Wenke said.

“That was a real problem for us,” he said.

That’s when the call went out for additional firefighting resources. In response, the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service provided 11 additional firefighters as well as a helicopter and two large air tankers out of Billings, and two smaller air tankers from Casper, Wenke said.

Mutual aid also was provided by Powell volunteer firefighters, who stood by at the Cody Fire Hall in case other fire calls came through.

By 7:15 p.m., crews had contained the fire and the South Fork Highway was reopened — it had been closed intermittently during the fire.

“We held it to around 145 acres and worked through the night,” he said.

Four fire engines and 17 firefighters worked on Sunday to douse hotspots, but no air support was needed at that point. A few firefighters will continue to monitor the area over coming days to make sure nothing flares up near the edges of the fire, he said.

“The great story is, it was a success,” Wenke said. “We did get it stopped with very little damage.”

Only one power pole and a few power lines were burned, despite the fact that the area was under a red-flag warning for high temperatures, strong winds and low humidity, he said.

“It was just a great example of cooperation between our fire district, the BLM and then the Shoshone National Forest.”

Wenke said the original caller described the fire as an out-of-control agricultural burn, but that isn’t certain.

“I think it’s most definitely human caused, but I don’t know what (the cause was) yet,” he said.