STORY AND PHOTO BY KAREN BOSSICK

Five days after a man burned himself trying to put out a fire he started while firing a gun, shots rang out again over mid-valley.

Blaine County Emergency Communications received some 50 calls in a half-hour’s time Wednesday evening about the shots.

This time there was no emergency—Idaho Fish and Game officers were shooting off four propane cannons every one to five minutes to reduce elk depredation on Peregrine Ranch.

The officers agreed to stop for the time being after being notified that the public was alarmed by the sound of firearms or explosions. And the Blaine County Sheriff’s office is trying to make sure it is notified next time.

The valley has been on edge since a 23-year-old California man admitted to starting a fire while shooting into a hillside 1.2 miles out Ohio Gulch on Saturday, July 17.

His group, comprised of three men and two women, said they had gone out Ohio Gulch Road to practice target shooting at Hurtig Shooting Center but that it was closed for a private event.

So, they went to the other side of the road and began shooting into the hillside. The man told investigators that he tried to put the fire out himself. In doing so, he sustained enough burns that he had to be transported to the hospital.

The fire started on Idaho Department of Lands and spread to Bureau of Management. The man was charged with a misdemeanor.

Heather Nelson, a spokesperson for the BLM, said she doesn’t know whether it’s legal to shoot where the group was shooting. And the Department of Lands in Boise wasn’t taking calls on Thursday.

The BLM’s fire procedures and regulations prohibit incendiary, tracer ammunition and burning explosive materials year-round near Sun Valley. A seasonal injunction running May 10 through Oct. 20, 2026, prohibits discharging or even possessing fireworks, exploding targets and steel-component ammunition tracer ammunition, fireworks, steel core ammunition and exploding targets.

Shooting at steel or ferrous targets is heavily restricted or entirely banned in dry vegetation to prevent sparks. And target shooters and off-road vehicle users are asked to carry a shovel, fire extinguisher and at least five gallons of water.

Learn more at https://www.blm.gov/programs/fire/fire-restrictions.

“Shooting in and of itself is not prohibited on public land,” Nelson said. “We just ask that people are smart about it, use a good backdrop and don’t shoot where dry vegetation could ignite. And make sure trailers chains and all are in good working order. It’s so dry out there right now.”