Fire season ignites with a vengeance

Mountain Home firemen put out the blaze at the home of Mel Lillicotch, one of two homes destroyed in the Gunner Fire.

The first major local wildfire of the current fire season erupted last Wednesday southeast of Mountain Home, destroying two mobile homes and a large two-story storage structure, as well as more than half a dozen outbuildings.

Labeled the Gunner Fire by the Bureau of Land Management, the fire burned 208 acres.

Authorities believe the fire may have begun in a back bedroom in a mobile home owned by Mel Lillicotch at 4228 SW Division Road, just off the intersection with the Old Grand View Highway, at approximately 3:15 p.m. The fire quickly spread to a nearby workshop and storage shed, destroying it, and then exploded across the desert.

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