Two large wildfires are burning in central Idaho, scorching nearly 50,000 acres.

The Hayden fire, which began July 19, has burned 24,489 acres in the Salmon Challis National Forest west of Leadore. The Elkhorn fire, which started on July 24, has scorched 24,039 acres in the Payette National Forest northwest of McCall.

Acreage hasn’t changed on the Hayden fire over the last couple of days because thunderstorms and weather conditions have kept mapping flights on the ground, said Lisa Wilkolak, information officer with Great Basin Incident Management Team No. 4.

Over the last several days, the area has received up to half an inch of water, which has slowed the fire and helped firefighting crews. That includes natural rain and water dropped from aircraft, she said.

“Crews are making great progress, starting to move into suppression repair,” she said.

That work entails repairing any mark crews would have made on the landscape, such as hand lines, and returning it to as natural as possible to lessen impacts on the land, she said.

“We are 83% complete,” she said.

That includes repairing direct containment lines on the perimeter of the fire and indirect lines using the natural landscape to help put the fire out, she said.

The cause of the fire is undetermined, and it’s under investigation. That could last a long time, and the cause might never be determined, she said.

Salmon River Corridor

The Elkhorn fire originated in the Salmon River Corridor and is now also burning on the Nez Perce Clearwater National Forest.

The cause of the fire is undetermined and is under investigation, said Mike Lindbery, information officer with Great Basin Incident Management Team No. 2.

“At this point we do not have any containment on this fire,” he said.

There’s been very little growth in the fire the last few days due to moisture and thunderstorms. More rain is expected Monday afternoon, he said.

Rain has led to a very low intensity fire, but that’s expected to kick up toward the end of the week on rising temperatures and lower humidity, he said.

The team is assessing potential indirect containment lines, and equipment should be deployed in the next few days. Those lines include barriers such as roads, trails, rivers and old burn areas, he said.

The fire is burning in the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness, where the strategy is to let it burn naturally to clean up the area. But teams are protecting camps, properties such as bridges, lodges, cabins and ranch structures within the wilderness, keeping them wet with pumps, hose lines and sprinkler systems.

They’ll build containment lines on the west side to confine and contain the fire as it moves out from the wilderness, he said.

There are nine active wildfires in Idaho, which have burned 53,038 acres.

Nationally, 87 active wildfires have burned 512,836 acres in 12 states. Year to date, 31,382 large wildfires have burned about 1.3 million acres. That’s below the 10-year average for the same period of 35,011 large wildfires on about 3.9 million acres.