Brush Fire Burns More Than Intended

A 2,000-acre grass field fire got out of control Monday, burning another 20 acres before Hayden Lake and Coeur d’Alene firefighters contained it.

The unintended blaze was in brush and stubble at the Kootenai County Airport, but no buildings were damaged, the sheriff’s department said.

Hayden Lake firefighters responded to the fire at 1 p.m. and called the Coeur d’Alene Fire Department for help. Sixteen firefighters brought the fire under control within 20 minutes, the sheriff’s department reported.

Grass growers are about halfway through their field burning, said Ed Honodel, the weatherman for the Intermountain Grass Growers Association.

Monday was a good day to burn, he said, because winds were light near the ground, and blowing to the northeast aloft. Fields near the state line and south of Rathdrum were torched.

“It probably impacted Sandpoint a little bit, but really it was an excellent day for dispersing the smoke plumes,” he said.

But Art Long of the Sandpoint Clean Air Coalition said the impact was more than a little. He videotaped the smoke as it sat over Lake Pend Oreille Monday afternoon.

“We hear from them, `We only burn 50 hours,”’ Long said. “Big deal. That smoke hangs around for hundreds of hours.”

The complaint hotline to the De partment of Environmental Quality registered 65 calls by late afternoon Monday when all that was left of the burn in Kootenai County was a dull haze over the Rathdrum Prairie.

The Clean Air Coalition has invited doctors, a DEQ air quality expert, resort owners and state Sen. Barbara Chamberlain to it’s regular meeting Tuesday to discuss grass burning. The meeting is at 7:30 p.m. in the Hope Community Center.