Fire southwest of Mountain Home burns 800 acres

A fire sparked by a faulty unit in a power line burned approximately 800 acres in the desert southwest of Mountain Home Tuesday.

The fire began near Beet Dump Road just off Highway 51 and quickly expanded due to high winds and extremely dry grasses in the area, jumping Highway 51 and proceeding to the vicinity of Flying H Road.

Only one home was threatened, but the owners had a fire barrier in place and the blaze went around the structure.

The Mountain Home fire crews were first on the scene, following shortly afterward by units from Mountain Home Air Force Base and the Bureau of Land Management.

Mountain Home sent four brush trucks, two pumpers and a water tender to the fire. The base fire department sent a brush truck and water tender, and the BLM added eight heavy brush trucks, a water tender, two caterpillar units and a water-dropping helicopter.

The fire began about 5 p.m. and was contained roughly 90 minutes later, but not declared put out for another 2 and a half hours after that.

During the mop-up operations some of the BLM crews were released to go fight a major fire in the Middleton area the same day.

The fire generated a great deal of smoke, reducing visibility on Highway 51 to zero. The road was closed by sheriff's deputies for several hours.

Including firefighters, deputies and standby ambulance personnel on scene, approximately 50 people were involved in fighting the fire.