Evacuation Orders Remain Near Idaho Fire Complex

PINE, Idaho (AP) — Firefighting airplanes dropped retardant and ground crews erected networks of water hoses to keep a fast-moving and unpredictable wildfire from scorching homes in a remote Idaho mountain hamlet.

The lightning-caused Elk Complex Fire near the central Idaho community of Pine already has burned 125 square miles of sage brush, grass and pine trees, in rugged, mountainous terrain. A few miles to the south, another big fire, the Pony Complex, has burned nearly 190 square miles of ground amid escalating winds and temperatures.

Pine and neighboring Featherville are under mandatory evacuation orders, but some residents Monday opted to stay and watch over their property. Last year, the Trinity Ridge Fire burned several miles away and forced hundreds to evacuate Featherville, but fire officials say the Elk Complex is moving much faster.