Risch surveys escalating Idaho fires

STANLEY, Idaho – Skimming the jagged Sawtooth Mountains in an Idaho Army National Guard Blackhawk helicopter, Gov. Jim Risch and the state’s National Guard commander, Gen. Larry Lafrenz, saw evidence Friday of one reason why Idaho wildfires have burned more than 600 square miles this season.

Bone-dry, beetle-killed forests of Ponderosa pine and Douglas fir trees blow up in flames as dry afternoon lightning storms move through the region.

Risch and Lafrenz toured fire camps in Stanley and Garden Valley to the west to survey the damage – as well as to tell federal firefighting crews here, who are strapped for personnel, that the state is ready to provide assistance from National Guard troops who could transport both equipment and firefighters, should they be needed.

Forty-nine National Guard soldiers already are providing security and traffic control on fires near Garden Valley.

Risch has also asked presidents of the state’s colleges and universities to allow student-firefighters to stay on the firelines without penalty for not reporting for school.

Since Thursday, there have been at least eight new wildfires in Idaho from lightning strikes, bringing the total of major active fires in the state to 25.

The Boise-based National Interagency Fire Center on Friday was tracking 60 large, active fires across the West that were burning more than 1 million acres, or more than 1,500 square miles.

In Washington, fire bosses trying to rein in wildfires that have blackened hundreds of square miles braced Friday for a cold front that could bring needed moisture, but also winds and lightning.

Temperatures in the low 90s on Friday were expected to drop 15 to 20 degrees, with increasing wind speeds and humidity across the region, the Weather Service reported.

More than 3,000 firefighters were assigned Friday to the Columbia complex and Tripod complex, the two largest wildfire clusters in the state.

Because of poor air quality from wildfire smoke in the region, the regional office of the federal Environmental Protection Agency on Friday ordered a ban on outdoor burning on four Indian reservations.

The ban covers the Colville and Kalispel reservations in Washington, the Fort Hall Indian Reservation in Idaho and the Umatilla Indian Reservation in Oregon.