Weather change helps fire crews
BOISE – Milder temperatures and increasing humidity Monday were helping fire crews beat back three blazes burning in timber stands along the rugged slopes of the central Idaho mountains.
The weather improved after hot winds Sunday fanned flames in the northeastern reaches of the Trailhead fire, burning under the gnarled peaks of the Sawtooth National Forest near Grandjean, about 10 miles west-southwest of Stanley.
High temperatures in the area were in the 80s and 90s Monday after two consecutive days hovering around 100, even in the higher elevations near the fire.
The blaze torched 50 new acres since Sunday, in a steep, rocky pocket of forest too dangerous for firefighters to surround. In all, the fire has burned 800 acres, or 1.25 square miles, in dry stands of lodgepole pine, subalpine fir and Douglas fir.
“It’s going to be a while before we get crews into that area,” said Ed Waldapfel at forest headquarters in Twin Falls. “It’s just too steep and rugged and unpredictable up there right now.”
Fire managers are optimistic the flames will halt when they reach a surrounding avalanche chute that crews continue to drown with aerial water drops, he said.
To the north, the stubborn Quartz Creek fire continued charring thick stands of lodgepole pine and alpine fir four miles north of the isolated Salmon Mountains village of Yellow Pine in the Payette National Forest.
The 83-acre fire was spreading erratically in a finger pattern from the eastern and northern perimeter, said Wade Alonzo, a spokesman for the interagency team dispatched to the blaze.
Crews were worried the fire could spread 2 1/2 miles north into the Quartz Creek drainage area that has several occupied campgrounds and two private cabins, Alonzo said. Area streams also are prime habitat for endangered species of chinook salmon, bull trout and steelhead.
Nearby, firefighters were gaining on the Elkhorn fire, a high elevation blaze that has blackened 938 acres in the Salmon-Challis National Forest six miles northeast of North Fork, about 25 miles north of Salmon.
The acreage number grew – up from 852 Sunday – as fire crews with drip-torches encouraged fire in valleys between scorched ridgelines to make the fire area more manageable, said Steve Butterworth, spokesman for the interagency team assigned to the blaze.
The fire was 60 percent contained Monday evening, with full containment expected by Thursday, Butterworth said. On Monday, temperatures dipped 10 degrees or more and relative humidity was climbing.