Powerline Fire near Pocatello is 85 percent contained

POCATELLO — A large wildfire burning west and southwest of Pocatello is now 85 percent contained, according to officials with the Great Basin Team 6 that is overseeing firefighting efforts.

Although the Powerline Fire was listed at 57,151 acres on Wednesday evening — about 4,000 acres more than the day before — most of that growth had occurred within the interior of the fire and not around the perimeter, said Fernando Pitones, a public information officer for the Great Basin Team 6.

Pitones said the fire wasn’t threatening any structures on Wednesday evening, and there weren’t any evacuation orders in place.

Firefighters have been able to further contain the eastern flank of the fire in recent days even as winds have tested their western lines, according to a news release issued Wednesday morning. Those lines have held and kept the fire from spreading further.

Some of the Pocatello valley received heavy rains on Tuesday, but the fire area mostly saw scattered showers, according to the news release.

“Rain like we had yesterday helps slow fire behavior down, but it isn’t enough to put a fire this size out,” Incident Commander Brook Chadwick said in the news release. “There is still a lot of work left to do before we call it contained.”

Firefighters have been reinforcing dozer lines and trying to secure unburned islands within the fire’s perimeter, Pitones said. They were also able to complete wood-chipping efforts in the Pauline area, located roughly 20 miles southwest of Pocatello, on Tuesday night.

“While much of the work on the eastern side of the fire involves locating and extinguishing burning fuels, crews on the western flank will begin the work of repairing containment lines to minimize long-term impacts to the landscape,” according to the news release.

Officials have said the fire, which has been burning since Friday, was human-caused, but investigators are still trying to determine exactly how it started.

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