People flee town near Moscow, Idaho through a tunnel of fire and smoke as Western wildfires spread

Lightning strikes have sparked fast-moving wildfires in Idaho, prompting the evacuation of multiple communities, including one where a man drove past a building and trees engulfed in flames as a tunnel of smoke rose over the roadway.

Videos posted to social media include a man who said he heard explosions as he fled Juliaetta, about 27 miles southeast of the University of Idaho's campus in Moscow. The town of just over 600 residents was evacuated Thursday just ahead of the Gwen Fire, as were several other communities near the Clearwater River.

The Idaho Department of Lands said “multiple structures” were burned, but the agency did not immediately release additional details, including whether the structures were homes or outbuildings.

Climate change is increasing the frequency of lightning strikes as the region endures recording-breaking heat and bone-dry conditions. Overall, more than 1,500 square miles have burned so far this summer in the U.S. Pacific Northwest, and more wildfires have spread in western Canada.

The most damage so far has been to the Canadian Rockies’ Jasper National Park, where a fast-moving wildfire forced 25,000 people to flee and devastated the park’s namesake town, a World Heritage site.

Oregon still has the biggest active blaze in the United States, the Durkee Fire, which combined with the Cow Fire to burn nearly 630 square miles. It remains unpredictable and was only 20% contained Friday, according to the government website InciWeb.

Some residents were cleared to return home in areas already burned by the Durkee Fire after thunderstorms Wednesday produced welcome rain and cooler temperatures. Evacuations were lifted for the eastern Oregon city of Huntington, population 500. Baker County Sheriff Travis Ash called the rain a “godsend,” and the Oregon state fire marshal said firefighters were set to “seize the opportunity” of better conditions to push back the fire on the Oregon-Idaho border.

But the leading edge of that weather also produced lightning strikes, which started 15 new fires in Idaho. For the first time, Idaho Power pre-emptively shut off electricity to thousands of customers to prevent new fires and power grid trouble from wires downed by the high winds, the utility said.

The U.S. Forest Service told Boise’s KBOI-TV that several of those had been extinguished by Thursday afternoon. Meanwhile, more than two dozen new fires also started in Montana on Wednesday and early Thursday.