Wet Spring Dampens Firefighter Enthusiasm Northwest Forests Still Too Wet To Burn, Leaving Fire Crews Idle

Firefighter Cameron Napora is tired of painting, mowing the lawn and polishing the red fire truck.

But the Northwest’s wet, cool spring has made wildfires as scarce as suntans for seasonal firefighters like Napora of Rathdrum.

“I like to be out in the smoke,” he said Friday. “It’s stimulating.”

Fighting fires is also where the lucrative overtime hours pile up, he said.

But so far this year, such work is hard to find.

While fire danger is rated from extreme to high in many western states, it’s near the bottom of the scale in most of the Northwest due to the wet, cold spring, according to the Forest Service.

The vast majority of land in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana and Wyoming is rated low to moderate. The exceptions are southern Idaho and southeastern Oregon, which are rated high.

Meanwhile, portions of Southern California are rated extreme, the highest level of predicted fire severity.

Southern Nevada, southern Utah and most of Arizona are rated at “very high” risk. The rest of California, Nevada, Utah and much of Colorado and New Mexico are rated high.

In Alaska, fire risk is moderate to high.

In the Inland Northwest, this spring and early summer have been so wet hillsides that would normally be brown at this time of year are a lush green.

“The prognosis for northern Idaho is it’s wet and it’s not going to burn very well,” said Carl Gidlund, spokesman for the Panhandle National Forests.

But conditions could change if an extended hot spell dries out the extra vegetation produced by all the moisture this year, Gidlund said.

Also of concern along the Washington-Idaho border are the many tree branches knocked down by a November ice storm. Those will provide extra fuel when they dry out.

“A late fire season is a possibility,” said Mark Vore, fire coordinator for the Panhandle National Forests.

But for now, fire numbers are surprisingly low. In a typical year, Vore said, there would have been 68 fires in the forest by the end of July. So far this year there have been four.

Mike Denney of the Idaho Department of Lands said the fire danger is increasing as more people seek burn permits to destroy piles of debris left by the ice storm and other harsh winter weather.

Out-of-control slash burns are a major cause of wildfires in the region, Denney said.

North Idaho hasn’t had a major fire since 1967, and the forests have stocked up plenty of natural fuels over the past 30 years, Vore said.

Napora, who fights fires for the Idaho Department of Lands, is anxious for any blaze to tackle. Thursday, he was called to a one-acre fire on a slash pile.

“It took us four hours to put out,” he said cheerfully. “All of us are pretty excited about fire.”