Fire jumps canyon, spares homes in S. Idaho

A 239-square-mile wildfire raced close to the tiny southwest Idaho town of Murphy Hot Springs on Friday, but the fire jumped the canyon where most of the community’s 50 homes are located and spared them from the flames.

The Rowland fire threatening the small town about 117 miles south of Boise on the Idaho-Nevada border was about 10 percent contained, said Bureau of Land Management spokeswoman Heather Tiel in Twin Falls. A team of the federal agency’s most experienced firefighters was expected to take over management of the fire, likely by Sunday, she said.

Firefighters have started sprinklers in the yards nearest the fire, said the BLM’s Brock Astle, and the Owyhee County Sheriff’s Office has closed the roads near the blaze. A mandatory evacuation order remained in effect Friday, county dispatcher Linda Gerthund said.

That fire and the nearby Elk Mountain fire, which was burning on 250 square miles northwest of Jackpot, Nev., were being whipped by winds that spread embers and burning debris outside the fire line, said officials with the Boise-based National Interagency Fire Center.

Fires in the region have burned 200 power poles, knocking out power to about 1,500 people on the Duck Valley Indian Reservation that straddles the Idaho-Nevada border.

Tribal buildings, including Shoshone-Paiute tribal headquarters and a hospital, have power from stand-alone generators. Still, residents of the remote area were without electricity to power their air conditioners and refrigerators, as the temperatures hit 97 degrees.

“They’ve given us dry ice, but I sell little sandwiches, and it’s all spoiled,” said Clarissa Brady, 63, owner of the Feather Lodge in Owyhee, Nev. “The seniors, they’re going to feed us one meal Saturday and Sunday at the hospital. They’ve been feeding us one meal every day at the church.”

Efforts to reach the Raft River Rural Electric Cooperative, which supplies the Duck Valley reservation, weren’t immediately successful.

The Tongue Complex of three fires was burning on 76 square miles of brush, grass and juniper about 45 miles south of Silver City.

Nearly 500 firefighters battling the complex were able to limit its spread to less than 1 square mile in the previous 24 hours, the NIFC said, and the fires were considered 45 percent contained Friday. Managers anticipated having the fire completely contained by Tuesday.

In eastern Idaho, life was returning to normal for workers at the Idaho National Laboratory. More than 700 workers were asked to stay home Thursday as the Twin Buttes rangeland fire forced intermittent closures of U.S. Highway 20. By Thursday night, however, the nearly 15-square-mile blaze was completely contained and normal work schedules were resumed, U.S. Department of Energy officials said.

Montana

More homes were evacuated Friday after a wildfire north of Wolf Creek grew to 570 acres, threatening up to 100 structures, fire officials said.

Residents of nearly five dozen homes were asked to leave Wednesday and Thursday after the Little Wolf Creek fire ballooned to 300 acres. On Friday morning, all homes west of Gladstone Creek on Little Wolf Creek Road were evacuated as fire conditions worsened, said Ray Read, an information officer for the Lewis and Clark County Department of Emergency Services.

The flames, however, had not crested Butcher Mountain or advanced on the homes in danger.

Strong winds and temperatures of 100 degrees or higher were forecast in many areas through Sunday, with humidity levels nearing the single digits. Red flag warnings, denoting extreme fire weather, were posted Friday for the Helena and Townsend areas, as well as sections of the Gallatin and Beaverhead-Deerlodge national forests.

The Little Wolf Creek fire, which officials believe was sparked by lightning, was 20 percent contained.

A 200-acre fire burning north of Wolf Creek near Interstate 15 was threatening no structures but charring steep, difficult terrain, fire information Officer Amy Teegarden said.

Meanwhile, the 7,270-acre Ahorn fire about 35 miles west of August was relatively quiet Thursday night after flaring up the day before.