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A fire was burning Friday morning in the Boise Foothills near the edge of the city.
The Valley Fire was estimated at 25 acres as of 4 a.m., according to the Bureau of Land Management. By about 7:30 a.m., the blaze had grown to over 2,000 acres.
The fire started about a mile east of the city — near the intersection of Idaho 21 and East Highland Valley Road — and was moving toward a string of subdivisions along Warm Springs Avenue.
There’s no estimated containment or control time. It is expected to be breezy later in the day.
Warm Springs Avenue has been closed from Eckert Road to Idaho 21.
About 1,300 customers in the area were without power as of 9:30 a.m., Idaho Power spokesperson Sven Berg told the Statesman.
Idaho Power de-energized the line at 4:15 a.m. for the safety of firefighters working nearby. Since then, the fire burned through some of its structures in the area, mainly wooden power poles. Berg said most of the power poles in that area are wood.
“We will go in when it’s safe to do so and assess the damage, make any repairs that are needed and restore power,” Berg said by phone.
Idaho Power isn’t yet sure when power will be restored, he said.
The Boise School District closed two schools for the day because of the fire, it said on social media: East Junior High and Dallas Harris Elementary. East Junior High is on the section of Warm Springs that is closed and Harris Elementary is about a mile outside the closure. Any students who were on a bus when the closure was announced were taken to Les Bois Junior High for pickup by their parents or guardians.
Source Agencies
