BOISE — The relentless spread of large wildfires has prompted the governor to declare a state of emergency and fire managers in three national forests to give up on trying to extinguish the blazes, focusing instead on protecting homes and other structures.
Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter declared a statewide disaster emergency on Monday because of the fires, responding to a request from the state Bureau of Homeland Security, which cited the growing risk the fires pose to life and property.
Otter spokesman Jon Hanian said the move would reduce bureaucratic red tape and make it easier for counties to get help from the National Guard or other state resources in battling the fires.
"We still have a lot of fire season ahead of us, and I want local and state folks to have all the help they need in protecting lives and property," Otter said in a prepared statement. "Wildfires might not be close at hand for all of us, but we all have a stake in protecting our fellow Idahoans from the threat."
Meanwhile, fire managers on some large wildfire complexes said they would need to wait for a different kind of help to fight back the flames — the snow of winter.
"With the resources we have and the conditions on the ground we're not going to be able to go in there and put them all out," said fire spokesman David Eaker. "It's physically impossible to do so. Unless things really change, weather-wise, we expect them to burn until the winter snow hits the mountains."
Starting Tuesday, just one management team will be in charge of fires burning in parts of the Boise, Payette and Salmon-Challis National Forests, Eaker said. The Cascade complex (burning on about 248 square miles roughly 25 miles southeast of McCall) and the Landmark complex (burning on 74 square miles about seven miles south of Yellow Pine) are expected to grow together, and the best efforts of firefighters aren't likely to stop the flames from spreading, Eaker said.
Timothy Ingalsbee, the executive director of the Eugene, Ore.-based organization Firefighters United for Safety, Ethics and Ecology, said the move was both unprecedented and smart.
"It's an implicit statement of humility," Ingalsbee said. "In the face of a powerful display of Mother Nature's power, we are wisely opting to stand down and select those venues at risk that really require fire suppression. Every time you send firefighters out to attack flames it puts their health and safety at risk, and this is a way to avoid that — especially when none of it is really working."
John McCarthy with The Wilderness Society also praised the move.
"It makes sense for the land and for the people from both a protective and economic point of view," McCarthy said. "It's a big, hot fire year and it's not over yet. The forest, left on it's own, does fine with fire."
Rainfall over the weekend helped limit the spread of new fires in central Idaho, Eaker said, but a gradual warming trend over the next few days could have fire activity climbing dramatically by the end of the week.
Near the resort town of Ketchum, the 17-square-mile Castle Rock fire was burning within about a mile of 100 summer cottages and million-dollar homes on Monday.
Otter gave the Blaine County sheriff's department permission to enact a mandatory evacuation of the homes on Sunday afternoon, and by Monday morning many of the residents had complied with the order, said fire spokesman Dave Olson. The fire has not yet claimed any homes, he said.
Firefighters will likely conduct a so-called "burnout" operation over the next few days, Olson said, burning all the flammable material along a line around the blaze to create a fire break. But for now, he said, crews were focusing mainly on structure protection and stopping any spot fires whipped up by expected windy weather.
"The wind direction would have a tendency of moving the spots away from the area where the homes are," Olson said. "We are beginning to work at some tactics to try to protect those structures in a more secure way.
Residents of several dozen additional homes were asked to evacuate as well, Olson said, but those evacuations were not considered mandatory. Officials did not have an estimate of just how many people left their homes because of the advisory. Many of the homes in the area are vacation homes, but an evacuation center was set up in the town of Hailey for people displaced by the flames.