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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Outdoors blog

No kidding: unextinguished campfire starts blaze near Priest Lake

"It's a tough piece of ground," said Randy Lee of Priest Lake Fire Management for Idaho Department of Lands about the Cape Horn fire in Bayview on Tuesday, July 7, 2015. (Kathy Plonka / The Spokesman-Review)

CAMPING -- The award for the most clueless campers in Idaho go to the boobs who left without fully extinguishing their campfires causing wildfires to spring up on the Idaho Panhandle National Forests over the weekend.

That would be inexcusable even if we weren't in a drought and in the wake of the region's worst wildfire season in memory.

You gotta love the Forest Service reaction. Instead of labeling it with the creek, road or other physical feature as usual, fire fighters named one blaze near Priest Lake the "Lazy Camper Fire" before quickly putting it out.

Meanwhile, the 24,000-acre Grizzly Complex fire, which was started by lightning strikes in August, continues to burn along the Coeur d’Alene River. Officials are expecting fire activity into November.



Rich Landers
Rich Landers joined The Spokesman-Review in 1977. He is the Outdoors editor for the Sports Department writing and photographing stories about hiking, hunting, fishing, boating, conservation, nature and wildlife and related topics.

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