Weather help for Idaho fires may be temporary

BOISE – Cooler temperatures and higher humidity levels Saturday helped firefighters battling blazes around the state, fire officials said.

Still, campgrounds, roads and recreation sites in parts of central Idaho remained closed as fire crews tried to make ground against the Trailhead fire in the Sawtooth National Recreation Area near Stanley, Idaho.

By Saturday the fire had charred about 3,963 acres, or more than 6 square miles. Though the blaze was threatening about 70 homes, no evacuations had been ordered, fire officials said.

“Some of the moisture we’ve had – light, misty rain – has minimized the fire activity and allowed crews to get in and work directly on the fire line,” said Lynn Barclay, spokeswoman with the Rocky Mountain Incident Management Team. “So we’re trying to get a toe hold, get some line built and take care of some hot spots along the perimeter before the weather change comes in.”

Tuesday’s forecast calls for higher winds and temperatures and lower humidity, Barclay said, and that means the fire could grow in coming days.

“There hasn’t been any perimeter growth so far, and we’re still figuring we have it at 20 percent contained. The fire is kind of creeping, smoldering, with isolated torching which means single trees are on fire,” Barclay said. “But once you get the wind on it, you’re going to push whatever fire you have from tree to tree.”

The remote location of the fire – on the west side of the Sawtooth Wilderness – and the large number of dead lodgepole pine trees in the region were complicating fire suppression efforts, Barclay said.

“It’s really inaccessible except by air. We’ve got some crews hiking in a couple of hours and then setting up a remote camp for a couple of nights,” she said. “We’ll ferry in supplies to them by air.”

The weather also helped crews battling the Summit Lake fire about 65 miles north of Boise in the Boise National Forest. A wind shift turned the fire back on itself, allowing workers to make progress on fire lines along the fire’s eastern side.

About 200 firefighters spent Saturday trying to keep the blaze from crossing Johnson Creek Road in Valley County, forest spokesman Dave Olson said in a news release. The fire was estimated at just over 4 square miles, or just under 2,700 acres.

The Red Mountain fire, also in the Boise National Forest, had burned more than 21 square miles about 12 miles northeast of Lowman. Crews hoped to keep the fire from moving north and east by burning potential fuels ahead of some parts of the blaze, Olson said. Though some roads in the region have been closed, Highway 21 remained open Saturday.

Four fires in the Nez Perce National Forest made up a conflagration called the Heavens Gate Complex, with the largest blaze, the Black Butte fire, covering about 5,000 acres, or just under eight square miles, in the Gospel-Hump Wilderness. The Green Acres fire in the Hells Canyon National Recreation Area was estimated at about 2,000 acres. The remaining two fires were relatively small, with the Horse Heaven fire in Hells Canyon at about 100 acres and the McCrae Creek fire at just 10 acres.

Those fires forced closure of the entire Gospel-Hump Wilderness area, as well as parts of the Hells Canyon Wilderness Area within Idaho County.