BOISE, ID — The East fire burning near Cascade has now reached over 2,000 acres. Crews are trying their hardest to suppress the flames by the air, dumping loads of retardant and water from Cascade Lake.
RELATED | East Fire explodes to nearly 1,700 acres near Cascade
I went out to the small town of Cascade to speak with locals on the matter.
One seemed surprised by the blaze when he discovered it saying, “I was out on the golf course yesterday and some of the guys were talking about the fire that had just started on East Mountain. I turned and was surprised to see all that smoke compiling out of the mountain. It didn’t look too bad but it was growing rapidly.”
The fire had, in fact, grown rapidly jumping from 175 acres yesterday to around 1,700 overnight.
One local shop owner said, “Last year, we had a fire over by the lake and we saw flames coming off the sides. Every year we get wildfires and we were hoping, maybe, it just wasn’t going to happen yet. We even had some ash come down here, so we do have some concern since Clear Creek is not too far from us. We cross our fingers that it doesn't get too much closer to us.”
One of the biggest forces allowing that fire to grow is the environment. The area around the fire has not seen water or humidity in days, making it a very dry and flammable landscape.
Right now, the fire is at zero percent containment, though no evacuation orders are being placed due to the burn being in more of a remote area. However, in the next day or so, Idaho News 6 is told that there will be a big closure area around the perimeter of the fire to keep the public out so that firefighters can gain access.
