Fast-moving Idaho wildfire destroys 50 homes

Wildfires have destroyed 50 homes and 75 outbuildings in north central Idaho as authorities urged residents of a small mountain town to be prepared to flee at a moment’s notice, state fire managers said late Saturday.

The so-called Clearwater Complex fire was just 15 percent contained early Sunday after burning houses and structures on the outskirts of the community of Kamiah, where an estimated 1,200 residents were told by authorities Friday evening that individual notice may not be given before the town’s evacuation is ordered.

Dozens of people in neighborhoods outlying the tiny logging town were told last week to flee in the face of the blazes, among more than 100 burning across the northern, southwestern and east-central parts of the state and in neighboring Oregon and Washington, according to the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise.

More than 770 fire personnel have been assigned to fight the blazes that make up the Clearwater Complex, which has scorched almost 53,000 acres of dense spruce forests criss-crossed by river valleys containing rural communities, Idaho fire managers said in a statement.

One of the fires in the complex was blamed last week for destroying a house and triggering the evacuation of several homes near the community of Wieppe, northeast of Kamiah, according to the Clearwater County Sheriff’s Office.