As if there was any doubt.

The 2007 fire season was another for southern Idaho record books, according to numbers logged by the U.S. Forest Service and federal Bureau of Land Management.

Hundreds of small fires and three major blazes - Castle Rock near Ketchum, Red Bridge near Shoshone and the Murphy Complex Fire near Rogerson - burned record amounts of land, forced evacuations and cost millions to fight.

Fires in the Sawtooth National Forrest cost more than $42 million to extinguish.

"I would suspect that's an unusually high amount," said Chris Schenck, a fire manager on the SNF's Minidoka District. "Just based on the high number of fires this year, I would guess that's pretty high."

On BLM land, the Murphy Fire alone cost $14 million to put out. About $10.5 million has already been spent to rehabilitate land in that blaze, and authorities expect the federal government to allocate another $4 million.

More than 220 fires burned nearly 14 percent of the district this summer - a record 720,000 acres - up from 184,596 in 2006. The Murphy Fire alone burned an area the size of Rhode Island.

"Gee, we set records in '05, '06, '07," said Heather Tiel-Nelson, a spokeswoman for the BLM's Twin Falls District.

About 50 fires scorched nearly 130,000 acres in the SNF, including the Castle Rock Fire that burned 48,520 acres.

Wildfires torched more land in Idaho this summer than in any other state, according to the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise.

About 1.9 million acres burned in Idaho - 42 percent of that in this area. About 9.2 million acres burned nationally, not counting some California wildfires still burning.

Federal land-management officials expect the mega-fire trend to continue as summers become hotter and drier. Authorities blamed the ferocity of this year's large fires on especially hot weather, high winds and a large amount of dry fuels.

Matt Christensen may be reached at 735-3243.