Gap wildfire no longer spreading but won’t be out until next week

POCATELLO — East Idaho’s first major wildfire of the year scorched almost 500 acres near Century High School and threatened some houses but firefighters have halted its advance.

Fire crews, including many rookie firefighters battling their first blaze, will continue extinguishing the fire in the hills southeast of the school throughout the weekend. The wildfire is not expected to be completely out until sometime next week.

But the blaze is no longer a threat to those who live near Century.

Cooler temperatures on Friday helped firefighters to contain the blaze and by Friday afternoon the firefighting effort was focused on extinguishing hot spots within the fire’s perimeter.

About 80 firefighters from the U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management and Pocatello Valley Fire Department responded to the blaze. Many of them will remain at the fire scene throughout the weekend and into next week, using Century’s parking lot as their base of operations.

Authorities said the fire was started by stray bullets fired by a group of individuals out target shooting in the hills near Century High School. Fire officials said it’s possible those target shooting will have to foot the bill for the wildfire since their gunfire sparked the blaze.

The fire scene on Friday afternoon was much calmer than it had been the day before with only a few smoldering hot spots visible on the scorched hillsides near Century.

The blaze was first reported around 3:30 p.m. Thursday and at one point its flames were spreading rapidly in multiple directions. Firefighters said they were able to slow its progress Thursday evening only because of changes in wind direction and help from three firefighting airplanes that flew multiple sorties dropping retardant.

By Thursday night only 40 percent of the wildfire had been contained and fire officials were concerned about whether multiple houses near Century High School would need to be evacuated.

But as firefighters gained the upper hand on the blaze Friday morning it became clear that no evacuations were needed. As of Friday evening the fire had not resulted in any injuries or damage to structures.

Fire officials pointed out that many of the Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service firefighters battling the blaze were rookies who graduated from Eastern Idaho’s Wildland Fire School last week and had never responded to a real wildfire.

Fire officials praised the new firefighters for their efforts to extinguish the blaze near Century, adding that there were “no rookie mistakes.”

This article was originally published in the Idaho State Journal. It is used here with permission.