A wildfire near Gooding spread to 12,000 acres by Tuesday morning, less than a day after it sparked near Bray Lake.
The Bray Fire was first reported around 4:45 p.m. Monday, just hours after south-central Idaho went under its first red flag warning of the year. The warning—which also covered the Snake River Plain, Salmon-Challis National Forest and much of eastern Idaho—was triggered by forecasted wind gusts up to 45 mph and humidity levels as low as 7%.
The fire spread from an initial estimate of 150 acres to 8,000 acres by Monday evening, reaching 12,000 acres by 9 a.m. on Tuesday, the Twin Falls District Bureau of Land Management office reported.
The Gooding and Bliss Rural Fire Departments responded to the scene and were joined by crews from the BLM and Sawtooth National Forest, including “three fire managers, two dozers, one water tender, one hand crew, 10 engines, and multiple aerial resources,” the BLM stated.
The fire has been ruled "human-caused," the BLM said.
Modeling by the Interagency Wildland Fire Air Quality Response Program Tuesday showed that the wind-driven fire had spread as far south as Tea Kettle Cave in Bliss and as far east as Dry Creek. The fire, about 40 miles southeast of Bellevue, was also approaching farms along the Big Wood River outside of Gooding, mapping showed.
Wind gusts had caused the Bray Fire to split into multiple heads and spread in several directions, the BLM said.
“Fire crews worked through the night to secure the northern flank with dozer line and a back burn. Ground and air resources will work together to secure last night’s efforts and create containment lines along the southern half of the fire,” the agency stated Tuesday morning. “Firefighters are facing difficult weather conditions again today with high winds, high temperatures and low relative humidity.”
For more on area fires, including the Moose Fire, which is prompting residents near Salmon to brace for evacuations, see Wednesday's issue of the Idaho Mountain Express.
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