KFD Chief Mike Elle said his department was paged out at 2:58 p.m. for reported smoke near the Boulder Creek summer homes north of Baker Creek. Assistant chief Robbie Englehart and a crew of three responded to the call, but did not discover any flames.

At 3:03 p.m. emergency dispatch received a call reporting a motor vehicle accident on the north side of Galena Summit and that the vehicle, a full-size Chevy pickup, was on fire.

"So we diverted Englehart to that accident," Elle said. "In addition, we sent another fire truck and two ambulances. Chris Stephens, a paramedic with us, was at Petit Lake and he heard the scanner and was first on scene."

There were two victims in the accident, a man, believed to be driving, and a woman.

"Both patients suffered serious injuries, but not life-threatening," Elle said. "We basically packaged them and put the in the ambulance."

The ambulance was met at Galena Lodge by St. Luke's Life Flight, which flew the patients to St. Alphonsus Hospital in Boise. Temperatures were too hot for the helicopter to land on Galena Summit.

"Due to the high altitude density it was too hot for lift," Elle said. "So we met them at Galena."

Elle said the victims, who were traveling south back to Ketchum, were making a "sweeping left-hand turn" when they slid across the road into a rock wall about a mile north of the summit.

Passersby helped the victims out of the burning vehicle and a Good Samaritan drove back to Smiley Creek Store to summon an ambulance.

"The delay between the accident and the call is significant. By the time we got there the vehicle had been on fire for at least a half and hour," Elle said. "It completely destroyed the vehicle and melted the pavement underneath it. It took two engines worth of water and foam to put it out."

Elle said traffic on Highway 75 was blocked for at least 45 minutes while crews put out the fire and transported the patients.

On the way back to Ketchum, one of the fire engines was flagged down by some people who told the firefighters they had put out the fire that KFD originally responded to.

"There was a 40x40 fire in the timber on the side of Highway 75." Elle said. "We want to thank the people that knocked it down for us."

Elle added that while Ketchum was responding to the emergencies, Wood River Fire and Rescue sent up an ambulance and Sun Valley Fire Department a crew to cover any potential calls.