Ironically, it was a city employee who started the fire. The temperature was 104 degrees at the police firing range when a Boise officer using tracer ammunition ignited the blaze.
With the soil in poor condition to absorb water, scientists believe that above-average rains could cause a 100-year flood condition, says the BLM's Janielle Smith. Resource managers are digging 80 miles of trenches, re-contouring the landscape and using straw-bale check dams in an attempt to slow runoff, she says. Re-seeding of the 14,000-acre burn is planned for the spring.