Winds Push Wildfire Though Dense Timber

A lightning-caused blaze in a North Idaho wilderness area was burning so hot and moving so fast Sunday that firefighters could only fight it from the air.

The Mankato Mountain fire had charred 500 acres of dense timber by nightfall, fanned by gusting winds in the rugged Salmo-Priest Wilderness Area north of Priest River.

“It’s too dangerous to fight on the ground,” said Don Bright of the Idaho Panhandle National Forests.

The fire, sparked Saturday afternoon, is destroying habitat that is critical for the recovery of endangered woodland caribou, Bright said.

For the past two days, ground crews had to be held back for their safety while air tankers from Coeur d’Alene and Spokane dumped fire retardant.

Also Sunday, fire bosses recommended evacuation of more than 45 people whose homes and cabins in west-central Idaho are threatened by a wildfire pushed by erratic winds and hot temperatures. More than 70 homes and some historic buildings are in danger of burning.

Residents at the resort of Burgdorf Hot Springs and nearby Secesh Meadows were being asked to leave and given the option of joining a convoy out of the area. The decision came after fire officials completed behavior predictions of the giant 30,700-acre Corral Complex in the Payette National Forest.

Just four miles to the west, two other large blazes - the Blackwell and Brush Creek fires - joined overnight to create a complex that had burned about 23,300 acres.

If the fires join, experts predict they could wind up facing an inferno half the size of the state of Rhode Island.

“It’s fire behavior at its most extreme,” said fire information officer Faith Duncan. “These fires are creating their own weather systems.”

Duncan said the decision to call for “yellow light” evacuation conditions came after fire behaviorists had a chance Sunday to observe the two fires.

Officials said the condition lets residents know the fire is four to six hours away to give them time to leave. They stressed, however, that nobody was being forced from the area.

That could change if fire bosses declare a “red light” condition.

“Both complexes are very active today,” she said. “We’ve decided that we have to escort people from the area.”

Crews set up a convoy to escort residents from the area. An alternate route has also been established should the fire block their path.

Some 2,500 firefighters, including more than 500 Army troopers, were fighting the fires.

To the south, in the Boise National Forest, more than 1,600 firefighters continued to battle the four fires that make up the Idaho City Complex, said fire information office Larry Lucas. Two of the smaller blazes, totalling some 3,100 acres, had been contained. But a pair of larger fires - the Rabbit Creek and Bear River fires - had blackened nearly 16,000 acres and continued to burn out of control.

The fires have been burning since June 28.

Lucas said the fire was creeping toward the Black Rock Campground and that a few summer homes in the area were threatened.

Temperatures Sunday remained in the 90s, with low humidity and warm winds pushing the fires onward.

“Things just aren’t looking any better right now,” Lucas said.

The Corral Complex was burning toward the resort of Burgdorf Hot Springs, where more than a dozen historic structures are threatened, Duncan said. Nearby, an estimated 70 summer homes at Secesh Meadows were also threatened.

The western edge of the Blackwell-Brush Creek fire had burned within a mile of a number of vacation homes. However fire crews successfully set a 100-acre backfire to create a buffer.

But other efforts at cutting any sort of a fire line had been abandoned by Sunday, Duncan said.

First off, the Corral fire is so erratic that officials are reluctant to put crews in front of it. As a result, the work is being concentrated on where there are threats to human life or property.

“The traditional idea of putting a fire line around this isn’t feasible,” Duncan said. “All we can do is protect people, structures and resources.”

Meantime, embers from the Blackwell-Brush Creek fire, pushed on by the winds caused as the fire sucks in air to feed itself, were causing spot fires well in front of its northeastern edge.

“It’s burning like a son of a gun,” she said. “Next thing you know, it’s a half a mile away.