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BLM hopes to contain Cold Fire tonight
A fire that began Wednesday evening has burned more than 4,500 acres north of Glenns Ferry by Thursday morning, with BLM crews launching a massive attack on the blaze.
Named the Cold Fire, the cause of the blaze remains under investigation. Some structures just north of the elk ranch near Glenns Ferry were threatened overnight, but crews prevented them from being damaged.
As of 11 a.m. Thursday morning the fire was more than 70 percent contained. BLM expected the fire would be fully contained by 10 p.m. tonight (Thursday) and controlled by Friday night.
At present, strong gusting winds and rugged terrain on the southeastern flank of Bennett Mountain are hindering containment efforts.
"We can't get any bulldozers in there," said Brandon Hampton, fire information officer for the BLM, "so it's turned into a hand crew and helicopter operation," for that section of the fire.
The BLM has committed 12 engines, three hand crews, four single-engine air tankers, two large air tankers, a water tender and two helicopters to the blaze.
"That's a lot of resources," Hampton admitted, "but fortunately it's been relatively slow locally, so they were available."
Ground equipment was able to reach the fire this morning, but hand crews had been working the fire prior to that due to rocky terrain.
Hampton said that due to high fuel conditions in the desert lands where the fire began about 5 p.m. Wednesday, it "burned quite rapidly." Cool temperatures Thursday and light winds in areas other than the Bennent Mountain area were helping, said Ben Sitz, Incident Commander Trainee with the Boise BLM.
Ken Dillingham's home, which sits at the base of Bennett Mountain, lost power at about 2 a.m. and power remained out Thursday afternoon. The Dillinghams lost a home to a grass fire several years ago and said the Cold Fire was "like deja vu." The irrigation system was running, however, and Ken Dillingham turned on sprinklers. Idaho power is working to restore power. At least two lines behind Dillingham's home were damaged by the fire. Crews put down lines of retardant with small planes on the north and west side of his home.
Dillingham had noticed the fire at about 5 p.m. last night and called BLM but they were already in route to the fire when he called.
The home of Bill Brimson was threatened and he was not home at the time. Fire encircled his property but there was no loss of any buildings.
No evacuation order was ever issued.
There have been no injuries or livestock loss at this point.
In addition to the Cold fire, federal firefighting crews also were mopping up Thursday morning two small fires, of two and three acres each, that began overnight near Atlanta. The cause of those fires also has not been determined at this point, but there were no reports of lightning strikes in the area overnight.