BOISE, Idaho (AP) -- Federal officials say southern Idaho's wildfire season has officially begun, as more than 60 Bureau of Land Management and local firefighters battled -- and subdued -- at least nine blazes so far this week that were caused by dry lightning and motor vehicles.
The largest fire, called the North Ham because of its location 3 miles north of the 200-resident burg of Hammett along the Snake River, was controlled Wednesday evening after it burned about 2,000 acres of sagebrush and grass, BLM officials said.
Most of the fires started Tuesday evening when a storm with dry lightning moved through southcentral Idaho, igniting dry grass that has flourished this year because of an unseasonably wet spring. On Wednesday, National Interagency Fire Center Officials in Boise increased their fire-danger rating to Level 2 from Level 1, indicating wildland fire activity is occurring, and there is a potential for larger fires.
''We've had a lot of rain this spring; that makes the grass grow high really quickly,'' said Jessica Gardetto, a spokeswoman for the Boise Interagency Logistics Center, which helps coordinate efforts to put out fires in southern Idaho. ''A fellow firefighter was out at Grasmere and she said the grass was waist-high. That's not normal.''
Across the United States, approximately 150,000 acres were burning Thursday, including three large fires in Alaska, three in Arizona and two in New Mexico. That brings total fires this year to 745,959 acres, compared to about 790,000 acres at this time a year ago, the National Interagency Fire Center said.
The first major wildfire of the summer in California raced across more than 6,200 acres of desert brush near Morongo Valley, destroying at least six homes, threatening hundreds of others and forcing residents of the sparsely populated Mojave Desert community to flee.
Another wildfire in Arizona swept across 30,000 acres of brush and grass by early Thursday and prompted the evacuation of about 250 homes. At least 10 structures had been lost, but a firefighters' spokesman said it wasn't clear how many of those were homes.
In the Boise area, it hasn't been quite so dramatic: 14,450 acres of BLM land have burned so far in 2005, on thousands of square miles stretching from the Oregon and Nevada borders into central Idaho. According to U.S. Geological Survey maps, the only Idaho region hit by significant wildfires this week was the southcentral portion of the state.
In one of the largest fires this year in Idaho, a 9,100-acre blaze near the 470-foot mountains of sand in the Bruneau Dunes State Park south of Mountain Home was controlled by BLM crews on June 14.
In some instances, firefighters opt to manage fires that don't threaten human life or structures, rather than immediately put them out, because of the role that such blazes can play in cleansing areas choked with old, dead vegetation.
On Wednesday, firefighters controlled the East Horse fire, located about 11 miles south of Bruneau, after it had burned 1,390 acres of sage and grass. They also suppressed several fires from lightning strikes elsewhere near Interstate 84.
Some fires in southern Idaho weren't caused by lightning.
A car pulling a trailer with a flat tire sent sparks into roadside grass and brush, causing a 34-acre fire at Milepost 97 on Interstate 84 that was controlled Wednesday evening.
Fire officials cautioned drivers to be especially careful around areas where nonnative cheat grass, a noxious weed, is becoming tinder dry.
''Vegetation like cheat grass is quickly drying out,'' said Bob Narus, wildland fire mitigation specialist for the BLM in Boise. ''This can lead to fast moving fires, which we definitely witnessed.''