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House fire sparks rangeland blaze
A $200,000 home in rural Elmore County burned to the ground last Wednesday and sparked a range fire that consumed over 600 acres and threatened several more home in the area.
It was one of several fires in the area that left local firemen weary, and BLM crews were battling a fire south of Hammett that could go to over 200,000 acres by today.
Fire Chief Phil Gridley said he has ordered a ban on all controlled burns in the area "because it's such a tinderbox out there, right now."
The house fire Wednesday occured at the home of Gregory and Lisa Wickard, 2510 W. 54th South St., just off the S-curves on the Bruneau Highway.
Gridley said the blaze appeared to have begun with a cigarette butt tossed into some potting soil on the home's rear deck.
The Wickard family was not home at the time. Mr. Wickard, a member of the U.S. Air Force stationed at Mountain Home AFB, was at the base hospital at the time being treated for a bee sting.
The base has provided temporary housing for the family, and some funds to assist them were provided by the local firemen's burnout fund.
Only a few minutes before a neighbor, spotting the rear of the home totally consumed in flames, called in the fire at 4:41 p.m., Gridley said his department had received a "red flag" warning, indicating high winds. Those winds blew embers from the Wickard fire across the lawn surrounding the homes and into nearby grasslands and weeds.
It then quickly jumped the Bruneau highway, moving south through some fallow fields and threatening several other homes in the area, none of which had fire breaks around them. "I don't know how many times we tell people to put in fire breaks, but it seems some people just don't listen," Gridley said. "They're lucky their homes didn't burn up, too. The only thing that really saved them was we got a wind shift at just the right time."
Gridley initially split his fire crews into two groups, one to battle the house blaze and one to fight the range fire until BLM crews could arrive on scene. He also called for mutual aid from the Glenns Ferry and base fire departments to help.
Besides all of the equipment he had, the BLM sent eight heavy engines, the base sent an engine and 5,000-gallon tender, Glenns Ferry sent a water tender, and the Mountain Home Highway District and the city shop both sent water tankers to help, while the sheriff's department handled traffic control.
In the 100-plus-degree heat that day, "I had guys going down left and right," Gridley said, praising the standby NPA ambulance crew for helping provide water to the dehydrated firemen. Every fireman available to Gridley, 29 (four were out of town), responded to the fire.
And in the midst of all that, a fire broke out in a vacant lot in the 1300 block of N. 13th East Street. "I can't say enough for the dispatcher on duty that day," Gridley said. "She was there alone and did a great job handling all the calls."
Gridley freed up a brush truck to send back to town for that fire, "but by they time they got there, the city police had managed to put most of it out," using garden hoses and fire extinguishers. He said the fire easily could have spread to nearby homes. "Without the help of those three officers, we could have have had more damage."
Friday and Saturday night the local firemen responded to two different car fires, both at the Foothills Chevron, and Saturday they responded, along with the Grand View Fire Department, to a mutual aid call from the base fire department to put out a 120-acre blaze started by dry lightning that burned near the ammo dump on base and nearly up to the main gate.
Then, Sunday night, at about 10 p.m. Gridley's crews responded to a house fire at 1305 Amber Dr., which a child playing with a lighter had set that home's garage on fire.
The fire was contained essentially in the garage area, but Gridley estimated damage at about $10,000.
Meanwhile, the BLM was struggling to contain the Clover fire, south of Hammett, which began July 15 following a lightning strike on the USAF's Saylor Creek Bombing Range. High winds quickly exploded the fire to major proportions. As of Monday it had run 30 miles to the Salmon Falls Creek area and had a frontage 10 miles wide, having burned, at that time, 180,000 acres.
BLM fire officials said they were hoping for a wind shift to drive the fire back on itself and were hoping to have full containment some time today.
It is the biggest range fire so far in Idaho this year, and the third largest in the nation so far during the current fire season. The BLM was directing 241 firefighters from their own resources, the Forest Service, and the state, as well as the Castleford Fire Department.
Besides having air support as needed, the fire was being fought with 38 engines, three helicopters,, five bulldozers and three water tankers.
No homes have been threatened by the fire, which largely has burned grazing land, including an area that is normally the range for wild horses in that area.