Wildfire burns 325 square miles

BOISE (AP) - A fast-moving grass fire in southern Idaho has scorched more than 325 square miles, forced the closure of the Hagerman Fossil Beds National Monument, and knocked out power to some residents in the region, officials said Sunday.

Fire spokeswoman Barbara Bassler said GPS mapping of the wind-driven Long Butte Fire gave a more precise size estimate of the fire that started about 4 p.m. Saturday 30 miles south of Glenns Ferry. It's burning mostly on Bureau of Land Management land in grass and hardwood slash.

Six air tankers started dropping retardant on the fire Sunday morning, three helicopters are also taking part and six more helicopters have been ordered, she said.

Two outbuildings were destroyed but no one had been injured, Bassler said late Sunday. Local fire agencies are protecting buildings in the path of the fire.

A Type 2 incident management team with experience in dealing with large fires has been called in, Bassler said.

The Times-News reported that officials at the Hagerman Fossil Beds National Monument decided to close the monument at 2:30 p.m. Sunday after the fire burned some of the monument land near Hagerman.

Officials told the newspaper a paleontologist is assessing damage to the monument.

Idaho Power officials said about 1,000 customers near Buhl and Castleford were without power Sunday after the fire destroyed power poles.

Another 60 customers around Rogerson and Twin Falls also lost power because of the fire.

Robyn Heffernan, a predictive services meteorologist with the BLM who works with the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, said a wet spring led to good growth of grasses in the region that have now dried out.

"That is giving us conditions that are ripe for burning," she said. "We have an abundance of grass because of the very wet spring we had."

Heffernan said Sunday that winds have been driving the Long Butte Fire but are expected to subside.

"After today winds are going to die down here in Idaho, so we're going to see a decrease in fire potential," she said.