Idaho’s neighbors promised fire-season help

BOISE – Gov. Dirk Kempthorne pledged to help neighboring states including Montana in the event of disastrous wildfires this summer, offering to share Idaho National Guard members if they’re needed.

The offer from Kempthorne, a Republican, came after Montana’s Democratic Gov. Brian Schweitzer raised concerns earlier this week that the Pentagon ignored his March request to reduce the number of Montana Guard soldiers deployed to Iraq. Since then, more Guard troops from Montana have been sent to Iraq.

“If Montana needs help, I’ll respond,” Kempthorne said in an interview this week. “We’ll get through whatever is thrown at us.”

With the weather in the West heating up – it was 107 degrees Thursday in Boise, the hottest July 21 on record – the possibility of catastrophic wildfires has raised fears that states with significant National Guard contingents in Iraq might not have enough citizen soldiers to battle blazes at home.

About 44 percent of Montana’s Guard members were mobilized as of July 12, according to data provided Tuesday by Lt. Gen. Steven Blum, the Army general in charge of National Guard forces. That is the third-highest rate in the country. Only Hawaii at 50 percent and Idaho at 46 percent have more Guardsmen and women activated.

But Kempthorne said that Idaho still has about 2,200 Idaho National Guard members in the state, and about 2,000 in Iraq. Montana has approximately 1,420 deployed Guard members, and about 1,800 still in the state.

In 2000, one of the nation’s worst fire seasons when 7.3 million acres burned, about 700 Idaho National Guard members helped fight blazes in the state, Kempthorne said.

In addition, two battalions of active military units were sent to fight the blazes.

Kempthorne says he’s received assurances from U.S. military leaders that those active battalions will be available again this summer if fires blow up.

“If I didn’t have those two, I’d be concerned,” Kempthorne said. “But they have pledged them, to fight on the front lines.”

Schweitzer said he’s aggravated that Montana’s commitment to the war in Iraq remains so high despite his request to return some soldiers to the state. He says Montana has about 500 fewer Guard members available for fire duty this year than in 2000.

Montana appreciates the offer from Kempthorne, Schweitzer aide Sarah Elliott said, but concerns remain that if the West is hit by another bad fire season, National Guard troops could be spread too thin.

“It’s something that we have already been able to do, to call on other states,” Elliott said Saturday. “If we’re having a bad fire season in Montana, it’s possible and probable that Idaho would also be having a bad fire season. If it’s dry here, it’s dry there. That stuff is pretty hard to predict, but we’ve seen it happen before, where the West is on fire.”

Western states including Idaho and Montana will be most at risk for wildfires in July and August.

In Idaho, three wildfires are currently burning on 21,200 acres, according to the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise. That includes a new fire that’s scorched 20,000 acres north of Minidoka on grazing and wildlife habitat.

In Montana, five fires are burning on about 7,700 acres, NIFC reported Saturday.

Gen. Randy Mosley, who heads the Montana National Guard, said in June that the Guard has enough soldiers for a mild fire season but may come up short if the fires are as severe and prolonged as they were in 2000.

More than 250,000 National Guard troops across the country have been mobilized for active duty since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The average state and U.S. territory has 20 percent of its National Guard troops deployed.