Wildfires rage in Idaho, Utah; evacuations in Idaho

Evacuations were ordered for three central Idaho mountain resort towns as fire crews battled two brutal wildfires. A fire also burned out of control in Utah. Idaho's Elk Complex wildfire, engulfing 100,000 acres, or more than 156 square miles, pressed toward homes, cabins and other buildings in mountainous Pine and Featherville, about 70 miles east of Boise, fire officials said. The relentless fire was only 5 percent contained, officials said. The fire, sparked by a series of electrical storms late last week, destroyed at least 71 structures, KTVB-TV, Boise, reported. More than a dozen of the structures were homes, fire officials said. Firefighters using water-dropping helicopters and planes alongside bulldozers, engines and other equipment focused on protecting threatened structures and burning out dry, flammable vegetation to curb the fire's advance, Elk Fire spokeswoman Madonna Lengerich said. Similar burnout efforts were under way at the larger but more-contained Pony Complex fire, near the town of Prairie, slightly closer to Boise, whose flames charred more than 145,000 acres, or about 225 square miles of sagebrush and grass, authorities said. Some residents were allowed to return home in Prairie Tuesday, officials said. Officials had issued evacuation orders for Pine, Featherville and Prairie, but some residents chose to stay behind, KTVB said. Gov. Butch Otter declared a state of disaster for Idaho Monday. In neighboring Utah, Gov. Gary Herbert said a at least a dozen homes and 15 other structures were destroyed in a wildfire burning near the mountain resort town of Park City, 30 miles southeast of Salt Lake City near Interstate 80. The fire engulfed more than 4,000 acres, or about 6.25 square miles, and was 5 percent contained, Herbert said.