Foothill fires not under investigation

Fires that broke out in the Bonneville County foothills Wednesday night are out, but they’re still sparking plenty of mystery.

Three fires in the foothills east of Ammon serve as three small reminders that fire season is not over yet.

“We can’t rely on the nighttime weather, mostly until we get season-ending events like major rains or snow,” said incident commander Tara Kurtzbein with the Bureau of Land Management.

A BLM crew surveyed the roughly 90 acres of charred land Thursday morning, looking for flare-ups.

“Definitely the cool weather and the humidity that have been coming overnight have made what have been difficult fires to suppress a lot easier,” Kurtzbein said, reporting no new flames.

Still, there are plenty of questions.

Aside from the fact that all three fires started at the same time Wednesday night, Kurtzbein said that there is only one more thing that connects them: they all lie under the same power line. However, there is absolutely no evidence that the power line sparked any of the blazes.

Since the fire is on private land, the BLM can’t investigate.

“We haven’t been able to rule out anything specific,” Kurtzbein said.

Bonneville County can’t investigate, either.

We are still waiting for a comment from BP, which owns the surrounding wind farm.