Death Of Grass-Burning Foe Raises Questions Family, Friends Wonder If First Burn Of The Season Was A Factor

Unpublished correction: Sharon Buck died from respiratory trouble. She was married to Paul Vogel but did not use the name Vogel.

The wife of a former Clean Air Coalition attorney died Thursday, the first day area farmers torched their bluegrass fields.

Sharon Vogel, a 37-year-old Sandpoint mother, died from respiratory trouble related to asthma.

Because the Vogels were camping near Sandpoint Thursday evening after the fields were burned, friends and acquaintances wondered whether the smoke could have been a factor in her death.

“It was consistent with an asthmatic death,” said Bonner County Coroner Dale Coffelt. Coffelt said Vogel was a known asthmatic.

“Anytime you have a 37-year-old die, it’s unusual,” he said.

Vogel was married to Paul Vogel, an attorney who used to represent the Coalition. Both were active members of the group. She was the mother of two children.

“He and she both were very concerned with the field burning issue,” said Art Long, president of the Coalition. “Obviously, her own affliction brought that to a very personal level.”

The Coalition for years has battled to end grass burning, an annual practice that sends giant plumes of smoke wafting through North Idaho and Eastern Washington in late summer. The dark haze aggravates sinus and respiratory conditions, they say.

Farmers argue it’s the simplest and most efficient way to rid their fields of straw after their annual harvest.

Coalition members and other activists against grass burning were reeling Friday, 24 hours after mid-day burns and a slight breeze sent dark plumes through Bonner County.

Vogel’s death gave them a further shock.

“On that particularly day I was just appalled that the grass-burners had burned,” said Patricia Hoffman of Save Our Summers, an anti-grass burning organization in Spokane. “The air quality was (already) bad that morning.”

Air quality problems on Thursday were complicated by wildfires just west of Spokane and in parts of Oregon. Grass fields in Kootenai County also were burned that afternoon, although only for two hours.

The Intermountain Grass Growers Association last week pointed out that poor air quality early Thursday had nothing to do with field burning.

But Long said the Sandpoint-Hope area was “inundated” with smoke by the afternoon. “This was specifically grass field burning smoke. It was not left over from forest fires.”

Long and others stopped short of blaming the smoke for her respiratory problems on Thursday.

But if her death was somehow related, “we hope this becomes the cornerstone that helps stop grass burning once and for all,” he said.

, DataTimes MEMO: Idaho headline: Questions arise after asthmatic woman dies