Idaho residents flee rapid wildfires, escape through tunnel of smoke [Video]

Lightning strikes have sparked fast-moving wildfires in Idaho, prompting the evacuation of multiple communities, including one where a man drove past a building and trees engulfed in flames as a tunnel of smoke rose over the roadway.

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Videos posted to social media include a man who said he heard explosions as he fled Juliaetta, about 27 miles (43 kilometers) southeast of the University of Idaho’s campus in Moscow. The town of just over 600 residents was evacuated Thursday just ahead of the Gwen Fire, as were several other communities near the Clearwater River.

The Idaho Department of Lands said “multiple structures” were burned, but the agency did not immediately release additional details, including whether the structures were homes or outbuildings.

As that and other blazesscorch the Pacific Northwest, authorities announced that a wildfire that tripled in size to become California’s largest of the year …