Progress finally began against the massive Beaver Creek Fire in Idaho as fire crews continued to fight the top priority wildfire in the nation on Thursday.
Since the massive blaze was sparked by lighting Aug. 7, it has burned over 169,000 square acres of land near Hailey, Ketchum and Sun Valley. However, as of Wednesday, it was 47 percent contained and actively burning on 108,094 acres of west Hailey and Ketchum, reports NWCN.com. In addition, growth has slowed and storms are forecast to bring rain to the region about 120 miles northeast of Boise.
Wednesday, 1,721 personnel used their resources to fight the wildfire in hopes of getting homeowners back into their houses as soon as possible and trying to eliminate mandatory evacuation orders.
Fire crews were reportedly able to do more burnouts. They did a burnout on the north side, and crews are trying to tie the north side of the fire into the old Castle Rock Fire scar, which they hope will ease concerns along Highway 75 north.
Despite the success of the fire crews, some 1,000 homes in this posh resort region owned by Hollywood elites like Arnold Schwarzenegger, Tom Hanks, Bruce Willis and Steven Spielberg, remain under evacuation orders, according to the Idaho Stateman.
So far, the fire has destroyed only one home and seven other buildings.
A special tribute to firefighting will be held in Sun Valley on Saturday. The "Sun Valley on Ice" performance will be free to the public, but any and all donations at the event will go to the Wildland Firefighter Foundation.