Josef wrote:Just down river from there was on fire last October when I was in that area elk hunting. Not far from Mackay. Huge bummer.

c180pilot wrote:Tragic? I may have a unique view on this. Born and raised in Idaho, worked summers thru college fighting fires. A big one I was on was on the Salmon, burned 10000 acres a day for awhile. Can't even really tell where it was now. If the trees burn, they'll grow back. It's kind of a natural process there. Back in the twenties?, I think, idaho had a fire that burned three million acres. My grandpa might have been on that one. All of it is lush forest now. If people's property burns, I'm sorry about that, but that is one of the risks you take when you buy property in Idaho forest. Hopefully, they can rebuild. Take the long view.

Wayne

highroad wrote:Unfortunately it looks like the fire has done some damage to structures:

https://www.gofundme.com/f/fire-relief- ... 0LCrkUnXco

highroad wrote:Unfortunately it looks like the fire has done some damage to structures:

https://www.gofundme.com/f/fire-relief- ... 0LCrkUnXco

McCall, Idaho – August 2, 2023: In the early afternoon of July 30, 2023, the Elkhorn Fire began taking what would be by the end of the day, a 20,000-acre run of extreme fire behavior up the Salmon River. In the path of the fire were Allison Ranch and Yellow Pine Ranch. Unfortunately, seven structures at Allison Ranch and one at Yellow Pine Ranch were a complete loss, and another partially damaged at Yellow Pine Ranch.

Shortly after the morning inversion cleared, a notable increase in fire behavior took place on the south side of the river, and a substantial smoke column developed. Within minutes, the fire had crossed the river in the area of Allison Ranch where firefighters acted by using the sprinklers, pumps, and hose lays already in place at the ranch in an effort to protect the structures. Soon, another report of the fire having crossed the river at Yellowpine Ranch came in. Within the next hour, the smoke column collapsed. Firefighters who were at Allison Ranch estimated 50, then 60 and even as high as 90 miles per hour wind blowing from all directions with large burning pieces of debris flying through the air. Firefighters remained on site to provided structure protection as long as they could but had to evacuate the area due in extreme fire behavior and burn intensity. Structure protection took place at Yellow Pine Ranch as well that helped minimize the damage.

What was different this time? Fire and structure protection has taken place at ranches along the river many times in previous years. This time was the perfectly wrong alignment of fuels, terrain and weather that equated to the significant fire behavior that took place. While the loss of the structures is unfortunate, we are thankful that all firefighters and members of the public that were with them were quickly accounted for.

The Payette National Forest has a public wildfire information hotline for fire information – 208-634-0820. Visit Inciweb for information on large wildfires at https://inciweb.nwcg.gov
, and follow the Payette National Forest on Twitter at @PayetteForest, and on Facebook at U.S. Forest Service – Payette National Forest.