Three Homes Saved From Range Fire Near Boise Lightning Causes Three New Blazes Wednesday

Fire crews successfully protected three homes east of Boise from a stubborn range fire on Wednesday as triple-digit temperatures on much of southern Idaho’s desert aggravated wildfire conditions.

The Bureau of Land Management reported four new fires during the day in southern Idaho, three caused by lightning.

The agency said another fire at Paddock Reservoir near Payette appeared to be man-caused, but an investigation was under way.

The BLM said it had little information on the new fires.

One was reported near Murphy Hot Springs in Owyhee County and two were southeast of a 30,000-acre blaze that broke out on Tuesday.

Three air tankers dumped thousands of gallons of retardant on the flames of the North Shore Fire, burning on a large island of land bordered by Lucky Peak Reservoir on the east and Idaho 21 on the west.

Although smoke was heavy, hanging in the valley stretching between the Boise Front and the Owyhee Mountains, firefighters managed to keep the road open.

There was still no target for containing the blaze, which grew from under 100 acres to 1,200 acres in a matter of just a few hours Wednesday morning.

BLM spokesman Randy Eardley said the fire started Tuesday evening along the reservoir shoreline in a place inaccessible except by water. He said investigators believe it was caused by humans.

Air tankers also made a morning run over a 30,000-acre range fire south of Glenns Ferry and some 60 miles southeast of Boise. The Notch Butte Fire, ignited by an automobile’s catalytic converter, quadrupled in size in less than 15 hours after it started on Tuesday. But fire crews checked its expansion overnight, and fire bosses indicated that containment would come relatively quickly.

The fire burned two corral systems on the Elmore-Twin Falls county line, but no other structures were threatened.

Crews were also dispatched to the high desert about six miles east of Bruneau where lightning early Wednesday set grass and brush aflame.

More than 7,000 acres had burned but no structures were being threatened.

There was no target for containment of that blaze.