ID: RESIDENTS, LIVESTOCK EVACUATED FROM WILDFIRE
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WEISER, Idaho (KIVI) — The Tartar Fire has burned more than 103,000 acres and is threatening homes and communities around Weiser, with one family describing how they became trapped while trying to escape the flames and feared they wouldn’t make it out alive.
The fire started July 24 but made a massive run late Saturday into Sunday, growing by roughly 80,000 acres overnight. As of Monday, the fire is 11% contained.
Kelly Glenn rushed to help his sister, Carlina Jensen, and her brother-in-law, Josh Beasley, evacuate livestock after learning the fire was moving toward their property. As the fire got closer, the family loaded trailers with animals and opened gates so the rest could escape.
“Loaded what we could, opened up all the fences for everything else, let them run out, um, and then hope that they’d make it through the night,” Jensen said.
Jensen left first with the animals and waited at the bottom of the hill for her brother and her husband. But as they tried to drive out, the fire exploded around them.
“The smoke was just thick. Couldn’t even see the front of the car and then the ash was on the windshield, so it also doubled the, the vision problem,” Glenn said.
Unable to see the road and surrounded by flames, Glenn says they turned around and drove back to the property, where Beasley had already decided to stay and defend the home and surrounding properties.
“I had kind of planned on staying and saving the houses, but I wanted everybody else to go. It got scary when it started getting in here and fences were catching fire and then it started creeping up this little hill,” Beasley said.
With no safe way out, the family says they spent hours battling the flames with hoses, sprinklers and shovels after law enforcement told them crews couldn’t reach them and to fight the fire with whatever they had.
“We was gonna suffocate or, or burn. Um, it was hard to breathe. It was really, really hard to breathe,” Glenn said.
The family successfully saved their home. All of the evacuated and released animals were later accounted for and found safe.
“I don’t have any regrets. If we wouldn’t have stayed, everything I had would have been gone,” Beasley said.
As of Monday afternoon, evacuation orders remain in effect in parts of the area.
For the latest information on the Tartar Fire, follow the Washington County Emergency Management and USWFS Great Basin social media pages for updates on evacuations, fire activity and resources.
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