Crews respond quick, contain fire on Galena Ridge
IDL Firefighter Austin Manty sprays down hot spots in the aftermath of the small fire near Galena Ridge on Saturday afternoon.
JOSH McDONALD
Crews from Shoshone County Fire District No. 2 along with the Idaho Department of Lands survey the scene of a small roadside wildfire that they contained near Galena Ridge on Saturday afternoon.
IDL crews are making sure that hot spots like this smoking tree trunk are fully out before they leave the scene of the fire.
KELLOGG –– The Silver Valley dodged a major bullet on Saturday afternoon when emergency crews responded to a fire in the Galena Ridge area.
Just after 4:30 p.m. Sgt. Paul Twidt with Kellogg Police Department responded to a call about a fire in the cul-de-sac area at the east end of Galena Ridge Drive.
Upon arrival, Twidt found two different fires burning – a small brush fire on the north side of the road and then a larger wildfire in the treeline on the south side.
Crews with Shoshone County Fire District No. 2 and the Idaho Department of Lands arrived on scene and within 20 minutes they had gotten a full fire line dug around the .25-acre fire and had it completely contained.
The cause of the fire is unknown at this time, and neither SCFD2 Chief Mark Aamodt nor IDL Fire Warden Chris Myers wanted to speculate on what caused the fires or even say if they believed that they were connected.
However, both of them agreed that it was plain lucky that neither fire grew beyond what they did.
“The wind kinda picked up, but then dropped right back down again,” Aamodt said. “There were a number of trees that were starting to burn, but things were just with us today.”
Some of the other firefighters discussed how they arrived on scene just as the fire began to climb up the trees, but due to the lack of wind they had time to get their lines dug quickly and had hoses on the fire shortly after.
With the thickness of the brush on the forest floor, there is a good chance that had the crews not responded as quickly and effectively as they did the situation could have been significantly more dire.
“We really just need people to understand that right now is not the time to be doing anything with fire,” Myers said. “There is nowhere drier than where we are right now.”
A fire investigator has been called in to look into determining what the cause of the fires was.
This was the second time crews have had to respond to a fire in the Galena Ridge area in the month of July.
Myers also gave a shout out to all of the crews who have been busy responding to fires during this brutal past month.
“We couldn’t do this without everyone, the local crews, the structure fire crews, as well as the volunteers,” Myers said. “These guys are out here responding quickly to every call and really saving our bacon.”
