Rathdrum blaze causes evacuation warning

A 5- to 10-acre fire on the northern edge of Rathdrum prompted a cautionary evacuation warning Saturday, as planes and a helicopter bombarded the blaze from above.

Fire officials said the cause of the blaze was undetermined, but heat was making the trees and underbrush feeding the flames tinderbox dry.

Crews quickly named the burn the McCartney fire, which is also the name of a road near the burn.

Frank Waterman, initial attack supervisor for the Coeur d’Alene Interagency Dispatch Center, said the fire started on private land about 1 p.m. and appeared to have burned into a mix of private and government land.

Two single-engine slurry bombers hit the blaze with fire retardant several times before a helicopter began dropping large buckets of water on the blaze.

Ground crews from multiple fire agencies were working on the fire.

In town, a small crowd gathered to watch as a holding pool was set up at Lakeland Junior High School to provide the helicopter with water.

Waterman’s dispatch center also had its eye on a four-acre fire burning on National Forest land above Priest Lake.

Dubbed the Salty fire, the blaze above Priest Lake was first noticed Friday.

Lightning is believed to be the cause, Waterman said.

In fact, the dispatch center is also watching three other fires – each less than a tenth of an acre – believed to have been sparked by relatively dry lightning storms that passed over the mountains around Coeur d’Alene and Priest Lake roughly two weeks ago.

Fire danger is currently high in the north and south zones of the Idaho Panhandle and moderate in the central zone between Magee Peak and Nuckols.

The National Weather Service was warning Saturday of dry, isolated thunderstorms late Sunday afternoon and evening for Eastern Washington and North Idaho.