Fire Fighters Take Advantage of Wind at Elk Complex Fire

PINE, Idaho (AP) — Fire crews in central Idaho took advantage of favorable winds to conduct burnout operations around a small mountain community, seeking to push a wildfire toward an area that was torched by a massive blaze last year.

Ludie Bond, a spokeswoman on the Elk Complex burning on more than 140 square miles near Pine, said Tuesday the burnout worked just as planned: Consuming dry, flammable vegetation as the wildfire stayed higher on the ridgeline above town. Similar burnout operations were being done to the southwest on the nearby Pony Complex that has burned 225 square miles of sagebrush, grass and pine forest.

The Elk Complex remains the nation's No. 1 wildfire fighting priority, since Pine and the neighboring mountain hamlet of Featherville, 8 miles from the flames, remain threatened. Additional water-dropping helicopters and fire crews are arriving.