Vulnerable Area Rallies For Fire Help
The two fires spurred interest in a local fire department. It wasn’t the first time.
While Kurt DeHart rebuilt his fire-ravaged home this summer, his neighbors began trying to build a fire department.
In two months, residents on the eastern edge of Kootenai County will vote whether to join a nearby fire district, which is offering to set up a fire station in Rose Lake.
The area has never had fire protection. The Idaho Department of Lands will fight forest fires, but not buildings on fire.
“Even people who have been around here for years and years just assumed there must be somebody you can call (if there’s a fire),” said Kathy Washburn, in the tiny community of Lane. “But you can’t. Nobody will come.”
In April, a faulty clothes dryer started a blaze that torched Kurt and Barb DeHart’s home of 25 years. The fire destroyed everything but a few pieces of charred pottery, and killed their Chihuahua, Minnie.
“It brings your life to a standstill,” said Kurt DeHart.
Less than a week later in Medimont, a few miles south, fire ripped through Gailyn Wood’s mobile home. She lived temporarily in a school bus as she tried to rebuild.
The two fires spurred interest in a local fire department.
It wasn’t the first time. Rose Lake has been flirting with the idea of a fire station for more than 20 years, to no avail.
“We’d have a lot of interest when somebody’s house would go down, then things would kind of die out,” said Dale Costa, chief of Shoshone County Fire District 2. “At least it looks like it’s going to get to an election this time, which is a lot further than it’s ever gotten before.”
This time, proponents want to annex into Costa’s district. It will cost 24 cents per $1,000 in property value. In exchange, the fire district says it will set up a station in Rose Lake, with two fire trucks. The district would cover the area from Cataldo to Medimont, and would have its own fire commissioner on the three-member board. Under state law, fire districts may cross county lines.
Washburn and Costa are confident the 400 homes in the area would be enough to provide 20 people to serve as volunteer firefighters. Costa said fire service would begin Jan. 1, out of the Pinehurst station, with the Rose Lake station active a month or two later.
On Wednesday, proponents held a meeting in Rose Lake. About 60 people came. Several spoke against the station, saying they didn’t want to pay more taxes. Washburn thinks they’re a vocal minority.
Not surprisingly, DeHart is foursquare behind the idea of a local fire station.
“If they don’t vote it in, people are being penny-wise and pound-foolish,” he said Monday, supervising construction of the new house. “My (fire) insurance rates will go down, but even if they didn’t, the cost wouldn’t bother me.
“I know how bad it can be.”
, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo