Idaho fires force hundreds to evacuate

PINE, Idaho – Firefighting planes dropped retardant and ground crews trailed water hoses Monday to keep a fast-moving and unpredictable wildfire from scorching homes in a remote Idaho hamlet where residents have been evacuated ahead of a big blaze for a second straight year.

Thunder and lightning storms have sparked dozens of wildfires across the West in recent days, sending fire crews scrambling, threatening communities and impairing air quality in some areas.

Near the central Idaho community of Pine, the lightning-sparked Elk Complex fire had burned 141 square miles of sagebrush, grass and pine trees in rugged, mountainous terrain.

A few miles to the south, another big fire, the Pony Complex, had burned nearly 225 square miles of ground amid escalating winds and temperatures. Read more.

If you had to evacuate your home what’s the first non-living thing you’d grab to take with you?