BY KAREN BOSSICK
Residents of Bellevue nervously watched the smoke rise in the distance Monday afternoon as the Grouse Fire gained momentum.
The fire started about 7:30 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 6, about six miles northeast of Pine. Believed to be human caused, it is on the boundary of the Boise and Sawtooth National Forests near Forest Service Roads 166 and 166e.
Campers were evacuated as the fire began spotting and running in brush and timber.
A Type 3 team of 72 firefighters is managing the fire, trying to put in a dozer line and douse the fire with aircraft drops. More firefighters are on the way.
The fire was at 200 acres on Monday morning, but it was expected to grow to the south and east with gusty afternoon winds of 30 miles per hour out of the northwest fanning the flames. And, indeed, it went to 4,100 acres.
Firefighters hope to contain it by Thursday, Oct. 1.
A 1.5-acre Fish Creek Fire has also been reported near Carey.
Said former fire information officer, Anne Jeffery: We’re not out of the woods yet. The National Interagency Fire Center in Boise says southern Idaho as far north as the Lolo Pass Road has above normal potential for wildland fire during September.
- The Porphyry Fire burning in the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness along the Porphyry Creek drainage has grown to nearly 6,000 acres pushed by high temperatures and gusty winds.
The fire north of Yellowpine was sparked by a lightning strike on Aug. 25 and is not being actively fought. Several trail closures in the area are in effect.
Crews also found themselves tackling blazes near Filer, Wendell and Parma on Monday as gusty winds clocked at up to 50 miles an hour from the north swept across southern Idaho. And late Monday night several communities near Cambridge were evacuated after a fire started on the backside of Brownlee Summit.The fire has exploded to between 16,000 and 20,000 acres.
The fires came after Boise had experienced unhealthy air in the red category over the weekend, thanks to smoke from California and Oregon fires. Monday's wind gusts, which measured 62 max in Jerome and 40 in Hailey, blew that out but brought some from wildfires in North Idaho and Washington, which destroyed 80 percent of the small town of Malden 35 miles south of Spokane.