BY MAX SILVERSON

The star-News 

Firefighters have worked on the Rock Fire around the clock since it was ignited by lightning on Tuesday. 

As of Friday morning, the fire was mapped at 2,336 acres to the south of Tamarack Resort and was still 0% contained. Some spot fires had burned into the resort boundary in the upper mountain, but were quickly extinguished, the Forest Service reported. 

The Boise and Payette National Forests issued an area closure on Friday that starts nearly three miles north of West Roseberry Road, south to Campbell Creek on West Mountain Road. 

The French Creek Campground was included in the closure, but other campgrounds along the lake remained open. 

All of West Mountain Road remained open, but the closure extended east to the road in some areas and west to the Indian Mountain Fire Lookout. See the official map for more details. 

“Today, firefighters will continue building containment lines directly against the fire’s edge and indirect lines to further improve defenses near communities and critical infrastructure,” said Boise National Forest public information officer Mike Williamson on Friday. 

Efforts on the ground will continue to be supported by airplanes and helicopters dropping water and fire retardant. 

As of Friday, there were 252 firefighters assigned to the Rock Fire, including three hotshot crews, three 20-person hand crews, two 10-person hand crews, 11 fire engines and two bulldozers. 

Available aircraft included several large air tankers, one very large air tanker, water scoopers, single engine air tankers and at least four helicopters. 

“A Complex Incident Management Team has been ordered to bring increased staffing and resources needed

to support a large fire incident. They are arriving today and will be in-briefed this afternoon, Williamson said. 

A “ready” evacuation order from the Valley County Sheriff’s Office was still in effect as of Friday for all residents along the west side of Lake Cascade from West Roseberry Road to Bear Trail. 

“Ready” is the first of three evacuation orders, followed by “set,” and “go,” when residents are advised to leave immediately. Everyone under the ready order was advised to begin planning their evacuation. 

For up-to-date evacuation orders, visit the new Valley County evacuation zone map www.co.valley.id.us/departments/Wildfire/wildfireevacuation.

Residents would be notified of upgraded evacuations through the county’s CodeRed emergency notification system. Visit the website above for more information. 

Mountain operations at Tamarack Resort were closed on Wednesday and have not reopened.