Idaho Wildfires Force Evacuations
Pastor Dale Morgan
Idaho Wildfires Force Evacuations*
Tuesday August 14, 2007 9:46 PM
By REBECCA BOONE
Associated Press Writer
BOISE, Idaho (AP) - Dozens of people were ordered to evacuate two small
central Idaho towns on Tuesday as an 88-square-mile group of fires moved
in their direction.
Gov. C.L. ``Butch'' Otter ordered the evacuations of Yellow Pine and
Johnson Creek at the request of Valley County Sheriff Patti Bolen.
Across Idaho, hundreds of homes are threatened by wildfires that have
blackened more than 500,000 acres, or 781 square miles, the National
Interagency Fire Center said.
Although the National Weather Service said temperatures in the 70s and
light wind were expected Tuesday, thunderstorms also were forecast in
central Idaho, with only a 20 percent chance of rain.
A caravan was being organized to lead residents of Yellow Pine and
Johnson Creek over a closed road to McCall, about 30 miles to the west,
dispatcher Stacie Branum said. That road had been closed because of fire
danger but was passable at times, said fire information officer Susan
Marzec.
Residents also had fled from around the central Idaho towns of Warm Lake
in the Boise National Forest and Secesh, Warren and South Fork in the
Payette National Forest, where more than 150 homes, five commercial
properties and nearly 390 other structures were threatened by a
95-square-mile complex of fires, spokeswoman Kris Eriksen said.
Another group of fires southeast of McCall in the Boise National Forest
had spread across more than 134 square miles, fire managers said.
Officials were forced to shut off power lines between Scott Valley and
Yellow Pine, leaving hundreds of people without power.
In north-central Idaho, the community of Comstock was threatened by a
94-square-mile fire in the Nez Perce National Forest, officials said.
Authorities in central Washington ordered about 180 people to evacuate
two vacation communities along Lake Chelan on Tuesday out of concern
that a wildfire could block their only road out. The blaze west of the
lake had spread across 1,700 acres, or less than 3 square miles, the
Chelan County sheriff's office said.
Montana still had nearly two dozen large wildfires Tuesday.
Residents of about 300 homes who were evacuated for a second time during
the weekend remained out of their homes because of a blaze near the
community of Seeley Lake, Mont., northeast of Missoula. That wildfire
had charred more than 21,000 acres, or about 33 square miles, and was
just 9 percent contained Tuesday, fire officials said.
Crews battling that fire were preparing for stormy weather expected
later this week, said fire information officer Pete Buist.
A Wyoming wildfire that had closed the east entrance to Yellowstone
National Park was less active Tuesday, allowing tourists to enter the
park from that approach for the first time in two days. While that gate
was closed, tourists driving from Cody, Wyo., had to detour 29 miles to
the park's northeast entrance on the Montana line. More than 208,000
visitors passed through the east gate this year through July.
The blaze, just a few miles from Yellowstone's east entrance, had
blackened some 12,000 acres, or more than 15 square miles, and
firefighters said they had yet to begin carving a fire break around the
fire.
In Hawaii, meanwhile, while the Big Island of Hawaii waited to see if
Hurricane Flossie would strike, firefighters on the island of Oahu faced
a wildfire that had covered more than 3 square miles on the North Shore,
damaging farm equipment and power lines. Several homes were evacuated
for a time on Monday.
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On the Net:
Natl Interagency Fire Center: http://www.nifc.gov/fire-info/nfn.htm