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Evacuations were elevated this morning due to increased activity overnight on the Four Corners Fire and the forecast weather conditions today. The Valley County Sheriff has issued evacuation orders (Go) for area residents of Campbell Creek south to Raspberry Road. The Sheriff’s Office is closing the area and making notifications through Code Red. Please evacuate immediately if you are asked to and travel southbound on west Mountain Road due to the closure to the north. Follow Cabarton Road and flagging to Kelly’s Whitewater Park. If you have property in this area, you will not be able to access it until it is safe to do so; this will be a hard closure. 

Yesterday, winds unexpectedly reached gusts up to 24 mph in the afternoon. This increased fire activity north of Wilson Peak into the Willow Creek drainage and in the subalpine fir along the ridge north of Hazard Creek and down the north side of Hazard Creek. Seven helicopters and six water scooping planes made fast turn arounds from Lake Cascade to put water on the flames. Firefighters continued extinguishing fire in smoldering brush and cutting back thick vegetation along the 435 Road and around the communities on the eastern edge of the fire.

Today, a dry cold front will pass over the fire, switching southwest winds to northern winds in the afternoon with gusts of 25 to 35 mph anticipated along ridges. Cold fronts are weather phenomena that are of concern to firefighters. Even though they bring cooler temperatures, no rain is expected, and changing wind direction challenges firefighting efforts. Fire behavior is expected to be very active in subalpine fir, causing flying embers to travel across drainages and potentially start lots of small fires for firefighters to suppress before they grow together. 

Fire crews continue directly engaging the fire where it is safe to do so. Firefighters keep building off previous days’ work to strengthen structure protection and containment lines. Weather may challenge firefighters today, who will be paying close attention to changing conditions and respond as necessary to protect area values.

Use caution traveling through the area. Boaters on Lake Cascade should be continuously aware that water scooping planes and helicopters may use any area of the lake throughout the day to draw water to support the firefighters. 

Air Quality:  Specific information about local smoke levels, forecasts, and possible health impacts is available at https://outlooks.airfire.org/outlook/cc0ac676/.

Evacuation Information: Valley County Sheriff has issued evacuation orders (Go) for area residents of Campbell Creek south of Raspberry Road. Residences in God’s Acres and French Creek remain under evacuation status (Go). Others in the vicinity are encouraged to consider evacuation preparations (Ready). Please visit www.wildlandfirersg.org for information on packing and preparing for evacuations. For more information on evacuations and local support, call the Valley County Sheriff's Office at 208.382.5160.

Closure Information:  The complete closure order for the Boise and Payette National Forests – including a full description and an accompanying map – is available at https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/closures/8331/.