Knudsen Fire burns 1,500 acres Monday night

High winds that tore through Elmore County Monday night triggered the first major rangefire of the season in the area east of Hot Creek Road above Mountain Home, charring thousands of acres.

The blaze, named the Knudsen Fire, was first reported at 7:43 p.m.

"When I got up to Highway 20, with all the dust (from the wind) I thought there was a possibility that the BLM lookout couldn't see the fire, and they couldn't, so I contacted BLM dispatch center and the local crews" directly, Fire Chief Phil Gridley said.

Initially, the fire was believed to have been caused when winds, gusting between 40-50 mph, dropped a power line near the substation just off Highway 20 near Mountain Home Reservoir. But no power line was subsequently found down in the area and the cause remains under investigation.

The fire burned approximately 1,500 acres and had essentially been put out by early Tuesday morning, although BLM crews remained on scene to monitor the situation and put out any hot spots that might flare up.

Dry desert conditions and the high winds quickly caused the fire to explode shortly after it was ignited. By 10 p.m. crews from the Mountain Home Fire Department and the Bureau of Land Management were battling a fast-moving blaze along a fire line nearly five miles long as it moved toward Red Rock Road and the base of the foothills headed toward Teapot Dome. Flames 10-20 feet higher or more poured over the ridgelines and up the draws and ravines in the area.

Fire crews were able to eventually prevent it from crossing Red Rock Road, however.

Although spectacular to watch, and scores of area residents drove to Highway 20 to view the blaze, there were few structures in the immediate path of the fire, which is largely open rangeland.

But that didn't mean there weren't reports of structures threatened. "In large fires like this," Gridley said, "we often get a lot of calls where people think the fire is. At 8:30 and then again at 9:15, we got calls that sent us out to Mystic Saddle Ranch," but the structures there weren't actually threatened, Gridley said. Nevertheless, "we had to send resources there" to make sure.

In fact, as the fire first broke out, one of the calls that came in reported the fire was located on Beet Dump Road, just east of the airbase gate, and Gridley had to send equipment there before it was determined that call was in error. "People need to be really sure of their locations," he said.

In addition to almost every piece of equipment available to the Mountain Home Fire Department, the BLM responded with seven engines, two bulldozers, a Forest Service engine and, while daylight permitted, utilized part of its firefighting air force to help control the fire.

A crew from Grand View responded to help with the fire, the city and TLK Dairy provided a water tender, and the base fire department sent a brush truck and tender to the Knudsen fire while staging a structure fire pumper at the Mountain Home Fire station as a backup in case a fire broke out in the city.

The Knudsen fire was the first major rangeland fire in the area this season. "We've been lucky so far," Fire Chief Phil Gridley said at the scene as he worked to coordinate the efforts of his firemen with those of the BLM.

"So far this year we've managed to hold anything that popped up to just a few acres."

But throughout Monday evening, high winds continued to frustrate efforts for rapid containment. At least three major windstorms moved through the area, and with fire moving as fast as the wind blows, crews were sometimes rushing just to keep up with the blaze.

At 10 p.m., however, they were making solid progress in reducing the width of the fire line and the fire was essentially out by Tuesday morning.

Gridley served as a roving spotter and safety officer while Rick Van Meer from the Mountain Home Fire Department and Todd Floyd from the BLM directed the firefighting operations from a unified command post.

Earlier that evening, when the winds first hit, smoldering debris from a Sunday fire on Bruneau highway flared up, causing local fire crews to have to rush to that scene to quickly extinguish the fire.

And one Mountain Home Fire Department pumper was briefly diverted on its way to the Knudsen fire when a small fire was reported behind the Golden Crown at the same time. That was quickly put out and the pumper continued on to the Knudsen fire.