‘Interesting’ Day Ahead For Firefighters High Winds, Low Humidity Could Worsen Dozens Of Small Fires In North Idaho Today

Local fire officials are bracing for severe weather that could turn small blazes into major wildfires.

At least 86 fires - many of them small - were burning in North Idaho on Monday. Last Thursday’s lightning storms are blamed, but fire officials say they also continue to find campfires unattended in the woods.

No homes or other structures have been threatened, but with high winds and low humidity expected today, fire officials are nervous.

“We haven’t gotten any big action up here. What happens if there is?” said Craig Foss of the Coeur d’Alene Interagency Dispatch Center. “(Tuesday) will be an interesting day.”

Winds are expected to reach 35 mph, with humidity topping out at only 15 percent in the Panhandle.

“That’s not good,” said David Cobb, fire information officer with the U.S. Forest Service in Sandpoint.

Twenty-five fires were burning in Bonner and Boundary counties Monday evening. So far, 280 acres are ablaze. Fires on only 20 acres are controlled or contained.

The remaining fires are not staffed, because of limited resources, Cobb said.

The largest fire in North Idaho is burning at Lunch Peak, northeast of Lake Pend Oreille in the Cabinet Mountains.

The 140-acre blaze has closed the popular hiking and huckleberry-picking area.

The blaze is threatening the Lunch Peak Lookout, which is being renovated for hikers to rent the building for the night. A fire team is considering wrapping the building with fire-proof material.

Because of a waiting list for firefighters, Lunch Peak does not have any fire crews at the site.

Neither do two blazes in the Lightning Creek drainage area about 8 miles north of Clark Fork, Idaho. Both those fires are about 50 acres in size, Cobb said.

A 10- to 15-acre fire in the McQuade Gulch was contained Sunday. It was burning less than two miles from Clark Fork and was within one-half mile of structures.

At least 13 fires in Bonner and Boundary County are not staffed. Crews are fighting 11 fires. Some of those crews have 10 people on them, Cobb said.

The largest fire in Boundary County, a 100-plus acre fire on American Creek near the Canadian border, also is not staffed. Forest Service officials were hoping Monday to free up enough people to “size up” the fire, said acting District Ranger Brett Roper.

“It’s not risking personal property,” Roper said. “The priorities are public safety.”

In the Coeur d’Alene River Basin, smoke jumpers have dropped in on seven fires. The largest fire, the Skookum Fire, is about 14 miles east of Coeur d’Alene.

It is 20 acres in size.

An Osburn firefighter was injured Sunday when the fire engine he was driving overturned on a logging road.

Joseph J. Wallace, 53, was air-lifted to Kootenai Medical Center after the shoulder of Bobtail Ridge Road in Shoshone County gave way. The tanker rolled down the hill and landed in the trees.

Wallace was listed in fair condition at Kootenai Medical Center on Monday.

Only one small fire has broken out on the Coeur d’Alene Reservation. A quarter-acre blaze was spotted last Thursday northwest of Plummer after a dry lightning storm hit the area.

Four homes were threatened, but fire crews quickly had it under control, said Tom Pakootas, tribal fire management officer.

In the Kootenai National Forest in Western Montana, 165 fires resulted from Thursday’s lightning storm.

Firefighters from Alaska, Washington, Idaho and California have joined Montana firefighters to battle more than 100 fires covering 4,500 acres in the forest, said Joe Krueger with the U.S. Forest Service. Only a little more than half are staffed, he said.

A type I incident command team - requested for the most serious disasters - has been called in.

No homes or structures have been threatened in the Libby, Troy or Yaak, Mont., areas, yet.

On Thursday, the Cabinet Wilderness will be closed to people to prevent fires.

Dry lightning is expected and winds could pick up in the next few days.

“It’s definitely not weather we want,” Krueger said. “The weather isn’t going to help us here.”