Bring On The Rain Blaze At Canfield Mountain Base Latest In Dried Out Region

Tinder dry.

After 39 days without significant rainfall, the region’s fields and forests are primed for fires like Wednesday afternoon’s, which burned through more than an acre of timber at the base of Canfield Mountain.

“Even if we get rain tonight, that by no means takes care of the moisture. It’s very high fire danger right now,” said Kenny Gabriel, public information officer for the Coeur d’Alene Fire Department. “Our main concern is to get this thing dead out before anybody leaves.”

Fearing wind gusts predicted for Wednesday evening could re-ignite the blaze, firefighters spent several hours mopping up the smoldering timbered acreage, just off Shadduck Lane.

The wooded area near Canfield Junior High is a popular off-road recreation spot for bikers and all-terrain vehicle enthusiasts, many of whom zoomed through a nearby vacant field as the fire burned.

Coeur d’Alene resident Steve Saunders, 33, reported the fire. He and two landowners were surveying property nearby when they saw smoke.

“We drove down the frontage road to see if maybe it was a controlled burn but there was no one around it,” Saunders said. “It was burning slash and looked like it could get out of control in a heartbeat.”

It did. By the time Saunders called 911 and firefighters arrived, fire consumed at least 50 trees, fueled by dry brush, limbs and slash, downed in last winter’s ice storm.

Twelve units with approximately 35 firefighters from the Kootenai County Fire District, Coeur d’Alene Fire Department and the Department of Lands quickly controlled the fire with the aid of four water drops from a Department of Lands helicopter.

A deputy state fire marshal was on the scene Wednesday afternoon investigating the cause of the blaze. “We are not ruling anything out right now,” Gabriel said.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color photo