Wildfires Head For Record High Blazes Pose Danger In Idaho, Washington And Montana

Firefighters in Coeur d’Alene scrambled to smother several small wildfires Saturday as fire danger approached record highs around the region.

A 20-acre blaze burning on Dawson Ridge, about seven miles northeast of Bonners Ferry, was the largest still burning late Saturday.

Two air tankers dropped fire retardant on the flames while firefighters and logging crews tried to block the fire’s spread.

The cause of the fire was not immediately known, the U.S. Forest Service said.

Tankers also were kept busy squelching small fires north of Newport, Wash., and Nordman, Idaho.

A lightning strike was believed to have sparked the blaze 35 miles north of Newport. The fire had burned about an acre of trees and brush, but was not yet contained late Saturday.

Firefighters gained the upper hand on two small fires north of Nordman, one near Ruby Creek and the other near Blacktail Mountain.

In Washington, a brush fire charred 35 acres in a canyon near Wenatchee before firefighters were able to contain it.

About 100 firefighters battled the blaze, which started Friday afternoon and was contained in about two hours. A 20-person crew mopped up Saturday to eliminate the threat of flare-up.

No homes were damaged and no injuries were reported.

The cause of that fire is under investigation.

And in Montana, A blaze that threatened homes and burned a path seven miles long and a mile wide east of Plains held top priority Saturday as an army of firefighters continued to battle forest and range fires.

The Boyer fire, one of at least 13 fires being fought in the state as others were only monitored, increased slightly to 4,200 acres. It had sent at least 22 families from their homes, but no structures burned. Near Darby, some of the 30 families evacuated at midweek because of forest fires still waited to learn when they could return home, after others got the go-ahead Friday.

Other fires in Montana included seven in Glacier National Park, where workers were dispatched to install sprinklers on the roof of the historic Granite Park Chalet as a precaution. Park officials said the chalet was seven or eight miles from a cluster of fires known as the Kootenai Complex, and said the backcountry structure was at no immediate risk.