VALLEY COUNTY, Idaho — The Snag Fire started by lightning on Monday evening, and is now up to 7,500 acres and 0% contained. The Warm Lake area is on level 1 evacuation notice, meaning “be ready.”
The evacuation notice area includes the North Shore Lodge and Juniper Mountain Outfitters, a horse camp for kids. As a precaution, the summer camp officials evacuated their 20 kids early.
“We are going to have them short this week because of intimate danger as much as it stinks that these kids are missing out,” said Madison Meholchick, who works at Juniper Mountain Outfitters.
Meholchick said they usually have kids for camp Monday-Friday, but decided to have everyone leave Thursday, in order to stay safe. While the fire is about two miles away from them still, they didn’t want it to get closer and have to scurry to get out their kids.
As of now, Meholchick said they are keeping their 40 horses at camp but are ready to get them out, too, if need be.
The camp has 20 kids currently, and three already had to leave earlier in the week due to smoke inhalation.
Also on level 1 notice is North Shore Lodge, which has ten cabins, usually filled up. They have already had five cancellations this week.
“There’s a lot of people that want to leave so they don’t feel trapped,” said David Ranton, who works at North Shore Lodge.
He said usually it’s a beautiful spot to be during the summer, but with the smoke now, it’s hard to even be outside. He said some people are staying put, but there is nobody new coming in.