BOISE -- Around the Treasure Valley, firefighters were extremely busy in the late afternoon hours on Tuesday. Several grass fires got dangerously close to homes and businesses in Boise and Kuna.
Around 3:00 p.m., a grass fire across from Trail Wind Elementary in Boise spread into dead, overgrown grass at a vacant house. Pretty quickly, the fire spread up to the attic, and it took around 30 minutes for firefighters to put it out. The cause of that fire is unknown.
At about the same time, several grass fires broke out along the connector. Traffic was blocked on Maple Grove and Franklin as firefighters from Boise and Meridian hosed the flames, which came close to homes and businesses. A car accident happened just beside the fires, with police saying the driver was perhaps distracted by the smoke and flames. The cause of the fires is unknown.
Just after 4:00 p.m., a fire started on a Kuna dairy farm. Dairy workers called 911 and fire crews came from Kuna, Meridian and Nampa.
"It appears that the transformer on the power poles down at the bottom of the field over here, the jumper wire sparked causing a grass fire which burned up into the tires stacked up behind us," firefighter Greg McPherson, Kuna Fire Department, said. "Our biggest concern was the spread of the fire onto the butte behind us. The workers from the dairy used front end loaders to cut a fire to prevent that; however, in doing that it got away from them and got into the pile of tires."
Calves on the farm were near the fire, but firefighters say fortunately the fire and smoke stayed clear of them. Once the grass fire was out, the fire department waited on the farm, allowing the tire fire to burn out. As of 10:00 p.m., firefighters were planning to stay another four to five hours.
