{"id":16040,"date":"2021-05-19T01:55:53","date_gmt":"2021-05-19T01:55:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/?p=16040"},"modified":"2021-05-18T19:59:54","modified_gmt":"2021-05-18T19:59:54","slug":"fanning-the-flames","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/2021\/05\/19\/fanning-the-flames\/","title":{"rendered":"Fanning The Flames"},"content":{"rendered":"

Local fire officials expect a \u2018pretty nasty\u2019 fire season<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

By Eric Valentine<\/em><\/p>\n

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The Idaho SNOTEL Snow\/Precipitation Report, as of Monday, May 17, shows drier than normal conditions in and around the Wood River Valley. Source: Natural Resources Conservation Service<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

How dry is it?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s so dry \u2026 that fire officials across the region, let alone the Wood River Valley, are preparing for record blazes, both in number and intensity.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s so dry \u2026 that at last week\u2019s Idaho fire chiefs conference in Sun Valley, the mantra there was there\u2019s no such thing as fire season anymore, it\u2019s closer to year-round.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s so dry \u2026 that you should seriously consider reviewing the FireWise USA fact sheet on how to protect your home from being part of any blaze this year. That one-pager can be found at this shortened URL: tinyurl.com\/duhfk8m2<\/p>\n

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Local fire departmernts often send vehicles and crews to assist other states with wildland fire. It is a balancing act to weigh helping neighbours and keeping resources for possibe local fires. Pictured is Ketchum Rural Fire (now North County Rural Fire) E-20 in California. Photo credit: Wood River Weekly<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

And if a back-to-back-years drought condition isn\u2019t already\u2014literally and figuratively\u2014adding fuel to the fire, the influx of new residents in the Valley and across central and southwest Idaho is the match that could ignite the blaze. Already by June 1, local fire officials will be banning all open burns regardless of federal guidelines.<\/p>\n

If everything goes right\u2014such as folks following regulations and other guidance\u2014all of this may be looked at in hindsight as hyperbole and overreaction. But for fire officials like Sun Valley Fire Chief Taan Robrahn and Assistant Fire Chief Rich Bauer, the high likelihood of a nasty fire season is on the forefront of their minds.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen all the factors line up just right, we\u2019re due to have a significant wildfire in the Valley,\u201d Bauer said. \u201cWe have to be on top of this because what we can\u2019t do is overstress our resources early.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bauer pointed out that last year in April there was an early fire event out East Fork. This year, a similar fire event took place in Indian Creek in April, but a week earlier.<\/p>\n

The Factors<\/b><\/p>\n

In a recent arson fire that turned brushfire in Pacific Palisades, Calif., Los Angeles Fire Chief Ralph Terrazes remarked that he woke that morning and it was raining, there was a relative humidity in the 60s with winds well below 10 miles per hour all day, but that the blaze was still going strong and less than 25% contained.<\/p>\n

\u201cFire just doesn\u2019t behave that way,\u201d Terrazes said.<\/p>\n

Like our part of the West, California has experienced back-to-back years of drought. So wildfire fuel is robust. But Robrahn and Bauer point out an additional stressor here: growth.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith so many new people, we get first-time campers, more recreational vehicles, etc.,\u201d Robrahn said. \u201cPeople don\u2019t realize how many fires get started just because their [tow] chains are dragging.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unextinguished campfires are also a common spark. According to Robrahn and Bauer, at one point last year 28 unattended campfires had to be put out by forest crews, in just one day.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight now, we\u2019re in the education phase,\u201d Robrahn said.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s why both men have been meeting with homeowner associations in the area to talk about homeowner fire prevention methods and evacuation plans. They have meetings lined up with federal officials to coordinate contingency plans and fire regulations, among other items.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Local fire officials expect a \u2018pretty nasty\u2019 fire season By Eric Valentine How dry is it? It\u2019s so dry \u2026 that fire officials across the region, let alone the Wood River Valley, are preparing for record blazes, both in number and intensity. It\u2019s so dry \u2026 that at last week\u2019s Idaho fire chiefs conference in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":16044,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","_pvb_checkbox_block_on_post":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[76,5,18],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-16040","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-emergency-services","8":"category-environment-2","9":"category-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16040","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16040"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16040\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16048,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16040\/revisions\/16048"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16044"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}