Rainy Weekend Would Lessen, But Not Eliminate Fire Danger

Sat., Sept. 30, 2000

By Trinity Hartman trinityh@spokesman.com

A rainy weekend would take the Spokane Valley one step closer to making it through a hot, dry summer without a major wildfire.

“If it rains this weekend, we’ll go to low (fire danger),” said Spokane Valley Fire District Chief Pat Humphries.

But Humphries and others warn that a little rain doesn’t mean the Valley has completely escaped danger.

It can rain one day, the wind can pick up the next and the brush can be dry again in a few days, said Lt. Tim Archer, fire prevention officer for Fire District 8 in Valleyford.

“It’s still pretty dry out there,” said Bob Kolva, chief for Newman Lake Fire District 13.

He’s caught whiffs of burning garbage in the air, which concerns him that people think since it’s rained, they can go back to having illegal burn barrels.

The county still has a burn ban in effect even though Gov. Gary Locke lifted the statewide burn ban on Sept. 5.

The county burn ban could be lifted next week, said Rod Holmes, county codes administrator.

That would allow people to start having campfires and beach bonfires again. They’ve been outlawed since the ban was imposed in early August.

Holmes is waiting for a report from the National Weather Service comparing this summer to the summer of 1991. Dry, windy conditions led to an October firestorm that year that burned 36,000 acres of timber and destroyed 114 homes in the Spokane area.

“The weather conditions are close but not the same. Luckily right now we have a little more moisture,” Holmes said.

Humphries said the firestorm should make people realize the Valley isn’t completely out of danger yet.

“The key is that every major fire in Spokane County has been wind driven. The moisture we’ve had so far is not a lasting mositure,” Humphries said.

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