Idaho Fires Force Evacuation Order
Residents of two rural vacation communities were told they should evacuate Sunday as forest fires stoked by hot, dry wind roared through Idaho forests, forcing some firefighters to back off.
“It’s fire behavior at its most extreme,” fire information officer Faith Duncan said.
Several big fires in west-central Idaho had burned to within miles of each other, and experts warned that if they joined they could char an area half the size of the state of Rhode Island.
Fire bosses recommended that more than 45 residents of the Idaho resort community of Burgdorf Hot Springs and nearby Secesh Meadows get out. The residents were offered a chance to leave by convoy as the area was threatened by the 30,700-acre Corral Complex in the Payette National Forest, northeast of McCall. A complex refers to a group of fires that are burning simultaneously but have not joined.
The Corral Complex threatened a dozen historic structures in Burgdorf Hot Springs and an estimated 70 summer homes at Secesh Meadows, Duncan said.
Many of the houses were old, have flammable roofs and are in hard-to-reach areas. “Frankly, a lot of them are simply indefensible,” she said.
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