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UPDATE - Evacuations ordered for Prairie, Fall Creek
The U.S. Forest Service has announced a full evacuation for all residents in the Prairie and Fall Creek areas as a range fire continues to burn toward the rural communities.
Residents are advised to evacuate using Blacks Creek Road with an evacuation center being established at the Elks Lodge in Mountain Home.
Meanwhile, Highway 20 north of Mountain Home remains closed to all vehicle traffic as crews battle a pair of range fires on both sides of the highway.
The current road closures includes a 56-mile stretch of highway starting at mileposts 96 at the Industrial Road intersection to milepost 152 at Fairfield.
As of Friday morning, there was no estimated time for the road to reopen, said Mallory Elis, a BLM spokesperson. However, an effort will be made to reopen the highway once it's safe for people to travel, she added.
Meanwhile, plans are being discussed to close Blacks Creek Road to keep non-emergency traffic from traveling to the Prairie area.
Two of the largest fires currently burning north of Mountain Home originally started in the Boise National Forest and combined with two others near Anderson Ranch Reservoir overnight.
The Milemarker 111 Fire has already burned 12,000 acres of land on both sides of the state highway. Meanwhile, the Long Tom Fire has already scorched 12,000 acres north and east of Long Tom Reservoir, located about four miles southwest of Anderson Ranch Reservoir.
The incident commander for both fires has reported that at least 10 structures were damaged or destroyed by these fires. It's not know at this time whether they were outbuildings or cabins.
Lightning from Thursday's storm triggered 11 range fires across the local area with local fire fighters and crews with the Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service working to contain the blazes. As of Friday morning, these fires had burned approximately 25,000 acres of land.
Calm winds are allowing the fires to burn in all directions, Elis said.
Two fires were reported north of Mountain Home on Canyon Creek Road. The Mudd Fire located approximately 10 miles north of the city has burned approximately 1,000 acres. Meanwhile, the Long Horn Fire located further north has burned another 500 acres.
According to Bob Ruth, a spokesman with the Oasis Rural Fire District, residents in the vicinity of Martha Road were advised to evacuate Thursday evening as crews started a backburn to keep the blaze from moving across Mayfield Road.
The winds remained calm as the backfire effort began but suddenly changed directions. This caused the flames to jump over Mayfield Road and start down Martha Road.
However, the winds changed direction again, pushing the fire back on itself, which allowed fire crews to help contain the blaze, according to Ruth.
Two more fires were located near Mountain Home Air Force Base with a 20-acre blaze located six miles northeast of Grand View already extinguished. Meanwhile, crews are still fighting the Air Fire, located south of Mickelson Road.
Meanwhile, fire crews built a fire break around another blaze located next to the interstate at milepost 99. The BLM expects that fire will remain contained.