Fire near Montpelier burns 2 homes, threatens dozens

The North Canyon fire is still burning Wednesday after destroying two homes near Montpelier.

The fire has consumed 420 acres, but after fire fighting efforts Tuesday, most of the fire is left smoldering.

“The fire is looking pretty good today. The crews are making good progress on the line,” firefighter Roo Phelps said.

But crews said the embers still hold plenty of danger.

Crews are hard at work, and helicopters are dropping loads of water, preparing for high winds.

“The challenge for today is definitely going to be the high winds gust to 30 mph and low relative humidity. So the fuels are already readily available to burn and with the low relative humidity, that just hampers us even more,” Phelps said.

If firefighters can keep the blaze from sparking back up, there should be good news for the dozens evacuated.

“As soon as tomorrow afternoon, maybe early morning it could be lifted. It all depends on the wind event today and how the fire behaves,” Phelps said.

Two helicopters, 12 engines, and more than 200 firefighters worked on the North Canyon Fire on Thursday.