Wildfire Jumps Lines Near Kellogg Reinforcements Summoned As Blaze Scorches 20 Acres Above Italian Gulch

Firefighters called in a helicopter, bulldozer and reinforcements Monday, after a blaze jumped fire lines and slowly fanned out over 20 acres of brushy timber above Italian Gulch.

“We thought we had it last night, but it’s about doubled in size,” said Gary Darrington, assistant fire warden with the Idaho Department of Lands. He said the fire, which was moving away from Kellogg, wasn’t likely to burn any structures.

The blaze was caused by four children who built a campfire Saturday and thought they’d extinguished it, said Mitch Alexander, a deputy with the Shoshone County Sheriff’s Department.

“It’s not willful or maliciously done,” he said. “They were playing up there.” The boy and three girls, ages 11 to 14, were questioned and released, Alexander said.

The sheriff’s office will turn the case over to the county prosecutor, who will decide whether to file charges.

The Department of Lands recently billed the parents of 10 Silver Valley youths $94,000 for fighting a 108-acre fire caused by campfire embers. The fire last Aug. 8 above Montgomery Gulch scorched 108 acres.

Monday afternoon, thick white smoke billowed up off the Italian Gulch ridge as 20 firefighters tried to contain the blaze. Fire officials planned to send in 20 more firefighters Monday afternoon.

Down in the gulch, 75-year-old homeowner Mac McNew stood in his front yard and stared up at the hillside through binoculars.

“There’s dead grass and dry brush in there, and that goes quick,” he said. “I’d go up there, but my legs don’t work that well anymore.”

It’s common for children to play atop the ridge, he said.

“They had forts and stuff built up there,” he said.

He spotted a couple of firefighters, dressed in yellow flame-retardant shirts, near the base of the blaze.

“They’re in there,” McNew said. “I feel good now.”

His 20-year-old neighbor, Erik Smith, grabbed a shovel and hiked up the steep hillside.

“There’s too much dry up here,” he said, as burning trees and brush crackled in the distance.

He pointed at a road.

“If it gets there to that road, I’ll be there to put it out,” he said.

Higher up the ridge, firefighting crew boss Sam Gibbons radioed for a helicopter.

“It’s real dry up here, and kind of unseasonably hot,” he said, tucking the radio microphone into a pocket.

Working with headlamps until after midnight, fire crews dug a line around the fire Sunday night, he said. Late Monday morning, winds blew embers and started the blaze again. The firefighters returned at 7 a.m. for what was expected to be a 12- or 14-hour day.

“There are seven people here. The rest are up on top, trying to hold that,” Gibbons said, shouting over the noise of a chain saw. “We had it (the fire), but it burns the leaves and the wind carries them out and drops them.”

It’s too early in the fire season for water bomber planes to be ready, he said. But with the helicopter’s water bucket, Gibbons predicted the blaze would be knocked down Monday night.

“It gets up and runs pretty good, then hits a patch of rock and lays down,” he said.

Because of the holiday, fire officials were having a hard time rounding up crews. Much of the initial work was done by a Kellogg Fire Department crew, Darrington said. They were joined later by U.S. Forest Service and Idaho Department of Lands crews.

“It’s early in the year and nobody’s geared up,” said Darrington. The helicopter had only a 75-gallon bucket, he said, “but it’s better than nothing.”

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