Duck Valley gets temporary power back; fires continue to rage nearby

After being without electricity for the past seven days due to the unrelenting Murphy Complex Fire, residents of the Duck Valley Indian Reservation in Owyhee County experienced a sense of relief this morning when temporary power was restored to the area.

At this time, the fire is only 30 percent contained and creeping closer to this community, with the fire now located about six miles southeast of the area.

For more than a week, residents in the area have endured hot temperatures, a widespread power outage, and lack of water caused by the huge wildland fire that burned hundreds of power poles supplying electricity to the reservation and surrounding areas.

By 8:21 a.m. on Thursday, a two megawatt generator, supplied by Raft River Electric Cooperative, had been placed at a substation nearby and began providing power to the struggling and weary community on the Idaho-Nevada border.

"The generator is already operating at maximum capacity," said Tribal vice-chair and Incident Commander Robert Bar, "but for now, we do have power supplied to the community."

The power outage created public health concerns due to large amounts of food spoilage, inability to access well water and the risk of heat related illnesses for the young and older members living on the reservation.

"Every morning we have had briefings with each of the various program directors to make sure we are meeting the needs of our residents, especially our elders and youth", Bar assured, "and so far we have been lucky to not have any cases of heat stroke."

Though Federal and state aid has been slow in coming, Bar said that 'finally' they have been engaged in conference calls with Nevada and Idaho agencies as well as the Department of the Interior and the Department of Agriculture to discuss immediate needs for the reservation.

"One area where help is needed is staffing," Bar said, "We need more bodies down here and hopefully they can help with that."

Relief has poured in from various groups around the region to provide water, ice and food to this isolated community located about 75 miles from Mountain Home.

Individuals and church groups and local government have sent aid in the way of canned food, dry ice, bottled water and money.

The Idaho National Guard at Gowen Field and Mountain Home AFB have provided vehicles to transport some of the donated supplies.

"We commend them," a grateful Bar said, "They really came through in a time of need and we can't thank them enough."

The direction of the huge fire nearby is unpredictable and the situation could rapidly change for the worse for residents in the area, but Bar said that temporarily, they feel 'set for the weekend'.