Fire burns 250 acres on Candy Mountain

A fire which burned 250 acres on Candy Mountain early Friday morning is now believed to be started because of debris from a car on I-82.

Captain Ed Dunbar with Benton County Fire District 4 says two small fires merged into one and quickly spread up and over the top of the hill.

"West PD was on the north side, watching it come over, and they understand how the fires work and rather than wait till the last minute they started evacuating. Because there was the potential if the fire was moving a little faster than it did, we could have had fire encroachment on houses," says Dunbar.

The evacuation order for about 50 homes off Kennedy road was lifted and Dunbar says there was no damage to any of homeowners property.

Dunbar says there was some natural habitat burned and the Benton County Parks sent an official out who determined about a third of the nearly 200-acre property was burned.

Officials say the trail will remain open, and as always they encourage the community to stay on the trails.