Crews continue battling range fires

Local fire crews battled a handful of range fires triggered by lightning storms that rolled across southern Idaho early last week.

Fueled by high winds clocked at 40 to 50 miles per hour, range fires south of the city burned more than 25,000 acres with smaller fires closer to Mountain Home consuming another 600 acres, according to city fire chief Phil Gridley.

Crews with the Mountain Home Fire Department joined fire fighters from Mountain Home Air Force Base June 29 to extinguish a 300-acre fire at the installation's firearms training range near the Grand View Highway exit. Other city firefighters worked with crews from the Bureau of Land Management to contain another 300-acre blaze off Beetdump Road.

For the full story, pick up a copy of the Mountain Home News or click on this link to subscribe to the newspaper's online edition.