The largest wildland fire in the Wood River Valley region this summer was no match for a one-two knockout punch delivered by area and U.S. Bureau of Land Management firefighters Monday.
The fire-fighting forces joined to squelch a 10-acre blaze on private and federal lands just south of Timmerman Hill that may have been sparked by a mechanical failure in farm equipment.
Wood River Fire & Rescue was paged out at 6:06 p.m. for a field and combine harvester on fire at the Spring Creek Ranch south of Bellevue along state Highway 75.
Assistant Chief Jeff Nevins said the fire started about a mile west of the highway and moved east.
The cause of the fire is still unknown, though Nevins said the driver of the combine, a machine that heads, threshes and cleans grain while moving through a field, told Nevins he thought an overheated bearing might have ignited it.
"It's a chicken-and-egg kind of deal," Nevins said. "The driver said he smelled smoke and looked back and the grass was on fire, and then he looked again and the side of the combine was on fire. He tried to make it to green grass in the combine, but could not."
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When firefighters from Wood River arrived, the blaze was an estimated four to five acres. Mutual aid from Hailey, Sun Valley and Ketchum was quickly summoned, as well as the BLM. Nevins said the departments sent seven vehicles and about 30 people to fight the fire.
"I can't tell you how much we appreciate help from the neighboring departments," he said.
Crews started at the fire's origin or "anchor point" and flanked it using hand tools and smaller tanks. BLM knocked down the head of the fire by dropping retardant by a single-engine air tanker, and water was scattered by helicopter using "Bambi buckets" dipped in Magic Reservoir.
"It turned out to be a very typical fire," Nevins said. "But it's the largest fire we have had in our jurisdiction and the largest we have been on. It's been an oddly quiet summer."
Nevins said his crews left the scene at 10 p.m. and federal agents were gone by 11:30 p.m. The fire was termed officially out by Tuesday. He said the crop, either barley or wheat, was destroyed and the combine is a total loss.
A firefighting helicopter gathers water at the scene Monday. Photo by Trevor Schubert
