STORY BY KAREN BOSSICK

PHOTOS BY DIANE PEAVEY

The Sharps Fire continued its march to the north and northeast on Thursday as it grew about 4,000 acres to 54,000 acres.

Incident Cmmander Beth Lund was upbeat at a Community Meeting Thursday night at Hailey's Community Campus, with one caveat.

"We've got to keep our fingers crossed. Today was windy and (Friday's) supposed to be windy, too."

As of Thursday evening, it was about four miles southeast of the town of Triumph and four miles from the intersection of Cove Creek Road and East Fork Road. It was about six miles from the mouth of Quigley and eight miles from the mouth of Indian Creek.

Firefighters who have been buttoning up the south flank will be deployed to work a line on the west side of the fire near Hailey and East Fork, said K.J. Pollock, fire information officer for the Type 1 Great Basin Team fighting the fire.

Residents in Old Cutters and the Buttercup subdivision north of Mytle, the South and North Hiawatha neighborhoods, Red Devil, Indian Creek, Valley Club, Ohio Gulch, Heatherlands and all of East Fork continue to be advised to be ready to evacuate at a moment’s notice.

Those on the east side of Highway 75 from Myrtle Street in Hailey to East Fork Road who have received pre-evacuation orders should take them very seriously but not panic, said Holly Carter, public information officer for the Blaine County Sheriff’s Department.

“There’s a lot of livestock in the area and there are some people who may not be well connected (communications-wise) so we want to give them plenty of time to get livestock out,” she said. “Everybody in those areas should have important documents, medications and pets ready to grab and go.”

The fire has made its way into The Narrows, a popular hiking area, which boasts picturesque rock outcroppings and fields of mule’s ear daisies in spring.

The Sawtooth National Forest has closed an area in the proximity of the Sharps Fire until Sept. 30 or until the order is rescinded by the Forest Supervisor.

The closure includes Driveway Gulch, Finley Gulch, Sawmill Campground, Federal Gulch and Timber Draw, PK Pass, Johnstone Pass and Gray Peak. Mormon Hill and several mines, including the Muldoon Mine have been closed on the east side.

The BLM Shoshone Field Office is also temporarily closing 128,000 acres of BLM-managed land public lands in and around the Sharps Fire. The closure covers BLM-managed lands east of Highway 75, south of East Fork Road, south of the Sawtooth National Forest Boundary, west of Fish Creek Road, north of Highway 20 and east of Gannett Road.

To see the map, go to https://www.blm.gov/idaho.

The perimeter in the area of the Little Wood Reservoir and Campbell Reservoir has been contained, as has an area to the northwest of Bell Mountain near Bellevue.

Firefighters who have been working to contain those lines will be moved to the western perimeter of the fire to try to keep the fire from reaching Hailey and other neighborhoods to the north, said K.J. Pollock, fire information officer.

The 320 firefighters on the fire had to contend with a cold front that brought 40- to 45-mile winds on ridge tops Thursday afternoon. The National Weather Service has issued a red flag warning for today, as well.

Though the smoke seemed light on Thursday, it played havoc with flights in and out of Friedman Memorial Airport.  Dr. Dale Bredesen had to fly into Boise and drive to Sun Valley for his Alzheimer’s talk hosted by St. Luke’s Wood River, arriving just in time. And attendees at the Sun Valley Forum found themselves grounded after their flight was cancelled.

One conference speaker who had planned on staying until Sunday left early Thursday morning because of her asthma.

Many of those attending the Sun Valley Forum prefaced questions about climate change and other issues with the fact that they had received pre-evacuation orders. And Kiki Tidwell noted that Idaho Power wants to build a second transmission line within yards of the existing one--and that both would be in the pre-evacuation zone. She added that there isn't enough backup generation at the substations, nor battery or energy  storage so that everyone should have enough gas in their tanks to drive two and a half hours out of valley.

Forum Founder Aimee Christensen noted that the Forum was founded in the aftermath of the 2013 Beaver Creek Fire as a way to help the community become more resilient. She also noted that Idaho has gotten a D-plus from Climate Central, a news organization that analyzes and reports on climate science, because of the state’s lack of preparation for meeting such risks as wildfire.

“People don’t want to come here and recreate in all the smoke,” she said. “Honestly, we haven’t done enough and more resources are needed.”