Two Idaho Fires Rage as Summer Heat Wears On

Forest fires are once again blazing in the hot, dry West. Only this time, instead of Colorado or Arizona, it's Idaho that's feeling the heat after two fires started over the weekend continue to burn.

One, called the Lodgepole fire, is located roughly 15 miles west of the town Challisa and was discovered around noon on Saturday, at which point local fire resources responded both quickly and effectively, according to NASA. As of Monday, the cause of the fire remained unknown and firefighters continued to work suppressing the flames that had burned some 650 acres.

No injuries have been linked to the fire, though a local campground was forced to shut down because of it.

Making matters difficult for the firefighters was the discovery of a second fire, called the Bradley fire, nearby and just a handful of hours after the Lodgepole fire was first uncovered, forcing firefighters to reallocate resources.

"We had an aggressive initial attack," Paul Sever of the Central Idaho Fire Center told the Associated Press about the Lodgepole fire. "But we moved stuff from there when the Bradley fire broke out."

For this reason, a DC-10 jet fire retardant bomber is currently on loan from Southern California and has made, according to Sever, several successfully drops.

The Bradley fire consumed just 50 acres as of Monday, but still managed to force the evacuation of the Bradley Boy Scout Camp and Beaver Creek Campground.

Neither fire, Sever believes, has the potential to reach the degree of intensity experience during last year's Halstead fire.

Starting in late July, the Halstead fire burned straight through to the end of October, consuming 182,000 acres by the end. Ignited by a burst of lightening, the fire wasn't squelched until fall weather brought with it a mix of snow and rain.