BOISE, Idaho — A fire that’s roughly 400 miles away — and not to the west or northwest of Boise — brought a wall of smoke and lower air quality to the Treasure Valley on Thursday night, and it will stick through the weekend, the National Weather Service said.

The Island Creek Fire near Elk Creek in north-central Idaho is producing the large amounts of smoke that traveled south and into much of Southwest Idaho over the past 24 hours, according to the agency.

There are no big fires in eastern Oregon at the moment, and a half-dozen Idaho fires closer to Boise, but smoke from the nearly 7,000-acre Island Creek Fire somehow has made its way to the valley.

Boise NWS senior meteorologist Les Colin said forecasters expect conditions to “get worse before they get better.” The weather service pre

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