BOISE, Idaho — A wildfire that started in a field of sagebrush and cheatgrass spread quickly up a ridge and burned as many as 10 homes in a Boise neighborhood Monday night.
Ada County paramedics reported no injuries, but residents said the fire quickly engulfed and destroyed the middle-class homes on the city’s southeast side.
“The wind is so strong we’re literally just watching houses go up in flames,” resident Susan Hallamore, 42, told The Associated Press. “Our house went up in flames.”
She said she, her husband and five children were away from the home they built about four years ago on Sweetwater Street when the fire broke out.
“First you’re happy you’re all safe,” she said, “then you realize you don’t have any pictures any more. You realize ‘I’m cold and I have no clothes.’ I have nothing left.”
Fire officials said all available Boise firefighters and equipment were called to the smoke-covered scene.
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management has also sent four engines and about 20 firefighters.
Fire officials don’t know yet how the fire started. But it was first reported about 7 p.m. and fueled by sustained winds of 30 mph.
Dozens of homes and residents were evacuated. A nearby church owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was opened to provide shelter for evacuees.
Michael Robinson told a Boise TV station that he and his wife and dog fled immediately after fire crept up the ridge to their neighborhood.
“It’s devastating. Apparently I just lost everything but what I’ve got on here,” said Robinson, who didn’t even bother to put on shoes before leaving his home. “The house next to me just blew up. These houses were blowing up like they were full of gas.”
Robinson said city firefighters came to the neighborhood last week, urging homeowners to get rid of dry grasses and other fuels and create fire breaks around the houses. Robinson said he and others complied, but it didn’t make any difference.
“The fire just jumped across the fire break,” he said.
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