Multiple wildfires crop up after lightning storm
Firefighters battle the Cataldo Flats fire on the south side of Interstate-90 Wednesday morning.
Ruth Peterson Ross
Smoke billows from the Mission Flats Fire Wednesday morning.
Smoke blots out the sun while ash rains from the sky as an airplane makes an overhead pass of the Mission Flats Fire.
Eastbound I-90 traffic backs up due to a single lane closure as crews battled the Mission Flats Fire.
Smoke rises from various sections of the Mission Flats Fire as seen from Tamarack Ridge Road.
Editor's note: This is a developing story and information is constantly being updated.
Fire crews with multiple regional agencies are currently battling numerous wildfires and conducting smoke checks in the west end of Shoshone County and eastern parts of Kootenai County.
According to Idaho Department of Lands, the largest active incident is the Mission Flats fire, currently 60 acres in size and 0% contained, located near I-90 milepost 36. Fire crews, consisting of personnel from Shoshone County Fire District 1, 2, 3, the U.S. Forest Service, and IDL, have kept the blaze from jumping Interstate-90 to the north and the Coeur d'Alene River to the south/southeast.
Tyler Groth with IDL stated that the primary concern was ensuring that the fire didn’t jump I-90 and get to the North side of the freeway where even more dried vegetation would have made for a more severe situation.
“We really worked hard to make sure it didn’t cross I-90 and get to the other side there,” Groth said. “We were trying to keep it boxed in between the (Coeur d’Alene) River, the swampy area below Tamarack Ridge, and this road road (near the Mission boat launch). That was where we were trying to keep the fire.”
IDL was assisted by operators from DG&S as well as Cochrane Excavation, who used dozers to help establish lines around the area of containment.
A command post has been established at the Cataldo boat launch to ensure that no damage comes to the Cataldo Mission.
As of 2:1 p.m., the state park is in no immediate danger.
The Idaho Department of Transportation had shut down a single eastbound lane of I-90 near the Mission Flats fire earlier Wednesday morning, but it has since reopened.
This fire was responsible for the majority of the smoke in the area and had been responsible for several false fire reports in places where smoke has lingered. As of 2 p.m. the air quality reading at the Pinehurst air monitoring station is "moderate."
A real-time report can be found at www.airquality.deq.idaho.gov.
Other smaller fires that have assets on-scene and/or have been knocked down include the Graham Ridge fire west of Prichard (10 acres burned and 0% contained), the Galena fire near Killarney Lake (controlled at 0.1 acres), the 4th of July fire near the Rose Lake junction (controlled at 0.1 acres), and the Graham Complex fires northeast of Prichard.
The Graham Ridge fire is reportedly being fought primary by the air as of 2 p.m. due to it being located in rugged and rural terrain.
IDL confirmed in a press release that all the fires were caused by the early Wednesday morning lightning/wind storm. Ac cording to the U.S. Weather Service, strong winds and thunder could possibly move into North Idaho Wednesday evening.
