Howe, ID on fire, Photo from KTVB

In addition to the town of Bucyrus, North Dakota that was virtually wiped out by a wildfire on Wednesday, another very small town was devastated by a fire on Tuesday. Sixty mph winds pushed a fire through Howe, Idaho (map) burning six buildings, which was most of the town. It is believed that the fire started inside a cafe that had been vacant, along with all of the other businesses in the town, for months. It then spread through the town consuming structures while locals fought the fire with buckets of water.

Howe, ID, Photo from Google Street View before the fire.

The closest fire department was 15 minutes away, leaving the residents to fight the fire themselves until firefighters from other communities could arrive.

Howe has only two full-time residents, but approximately 175 people live just outside the town.

Lou Jones who lives nearby said, “The wind was blowing so hard the tumbleweeds would catch fire and take it everywhere. As you can see the whole town caught fire, except me.”

In addition to Mr. Jones’ house, the school and a church survived the fire.

KTVB has some photos of the fire.