July Fourth holiday brings fires, citations

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More than a dozen fires burned in Southeast Idaho Friday, and Pocatello police issued 29 citations relating to discharges of illegal fireworks.

All of the public safety agencies, including the Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service, geared up this week for an anticipated incident-filled Independence Day. The celebration kicked off before Friday night and spilled into a weekend that littered portions of pavements with smoke stains and used firecrackers. On Friday, the Pocatello Fire Department reported two wildfires.

One, which the Journal reported earlier, was a 2-acre burn that consumed grass on East Center Street and La Valle Drive and threatened 40 homes. The incident resulted in one citation.

“We were probably there at about 2:30 p.m., called it controlled by 3 p.m. and were leaving the area by 4:30 p.m.,” said David Gates, a division chief for the Pocatello Fire Department.

Pocatello’s second Independence Day fire was much smaller. Gates said a bush caught fire on Charles Place. He said the fire was out before firefighters arrived at the scene.

Gates said even during the midst of Idaho’s wildfire season, fires do not occur often in the two areas that suffered burn damage Friday.

“It hasn’t had one in a little while,” he said, “but generally every year we have on the east and west bench. Last year, we had the red hill catch on fire twice.”

However, the week including July 4 is not usually the only time humans are at fault for setting lands ablaze.

“Almost all of them are,” Gates said, referring to the fact that human activities are a leading cause of wildfires. “We’ve had some lightning strikes that cause fires, but most of them have occurred because of fireworks, matches, kids playing or a contractor blowing a transformer.”

For the rest of Southeast Idaho, devious actions were much less rampant.

The Bingham County Sheriff’s office reported two wildfires, while deputies in Power, Bear Lake, Caribou, Franklin and Oneida counties reported neither burns nor citations.

The Bannock County Sheriff’s Office reported eight cases relating to illegal fireworks discharge, but could not comment on how many citations were issued.

Sonja Shadow, an information officer with the Eastern Idaho Interagency Fire Center, said about 11 fires burned near Arco, while three occurred in the areas surrounding Lava Hot Springs.

“This is not atypical for us,” she said, adding that all of Friday’s fires were human-caused.

Saturday, Shadow said a wildfire consumed about 1 acre northwest of Dubois. She said most of the fires on Friday and Saturday were no larger than half an acre.

There were also two fires in the American Falls area, one of which was caused by train sparks.

“I think that we fear for the worst. Friday was what people in the industry call a ‘red flag’ day. When we knew that, we were very concerned that things could get really bad quickly,” Gates said. “It makes me nervous when I see fireworks being shot out, but we upped our patrols and our presence.”

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