This weekend (8/5) near Skinnydipper Hot Springs a widfire broke out.
This fire initially moved from near milepost 5 on the HWY 17 to the west until it got to HWY 55. It also moved north and is now across Zimmer creek (5 mi north of Banks). It has also jumped the South Fork of the Payette and is burning up to HWY 55 south of Banks as well.
Currently HWY 55 is closed from Gardena to Milepost 97.
Our house is just a couple of miles from the NE corner of the fire currently — so we are watching this closely.
More information at (http://inciweb.org/incident/3093/). Also see (http://activefiremaps.fs.fed.us/#)
Update 8/14/12
The Springs fire continues to grow and is threatening Castle Mountain, Terrace Lakes and too a lesser extent the rest of the Garden Valley area.
The fire has moved up Zimmer Creek drainage which joins at the ridge with the Warm Springs Creek drainage. If the fire crests the ridge it could be disastrous for the home owners in the area.
With homes threatened more air support has been brought in, and pre-stage 1 evacuation planning and home owner notifications are taking place.
We are keeping are fingers crossed.
See the photos below. The first five are from when we were waiting to go east on Highway 17 on Wednesday evening. The rest are from Kari Greer who has posted some terrific pictures at http://photobucket.com/springsfire_greer
