Fire danger on the rise
<p>"Safety" (Jenna Miller of the U.S. Forest Service), right, waits for her cue to begin the annual Life Safety and Injury Prevention skit at one of the 22 schools in Kootenai County this year. The presentation is put on by the Kootenai County Fire Prevention Cooperative. "Siren" (Sandy Groth, a volunteer with Northern Lakes Fire District) and "Rescue" (Jim Lion on Northern Lakes Fire District) sleep as children enter the gymnasium, soon to be awakwnws from a smoke detector due to food "burning" on the stove.</p>
Even with rain earlier this week, Mother Nature has some catching up to do to calm the wildfire danger that's smoldering this year.
"The northern Idaho area experienced a less-than-normal snowpack for the winter," said Shane O'Shea, assistant fire warden with the Idaho Department of Lands. "Also, we have been in a deficit of precipitation since January."
The forest fuels are drying out more rapidly than normal with the unseasonably warm temperatures recently, O'Shea said. He said the fire danger is at conditions normally seen later in the summer.
"The rains that fell on Monday helped to lessen the fire danger, but this is a short-term fix," he said. "If the region does not receive a longer period of wetting rains and temperatures continue to stay warm, the potential for high fire danger early in the season is a given."
The IDL performed a burn on state ground near Twin Lakes recently. The area had patchy snow around two weeks ago.
"We saw fire behavior that is very abnormal for May," he said of the burn. "It was very active and we experienced spot fires outside of our burn area."
The Kootenai County Fire Prevention Cooperative's school skit program did its part to remind youth about fire dangers and teach life safety lessons. The skit was performed in 22 Kootenai County schools to nearly 2,000 children.
The co-op is comprised of all county fire agencies, along with the Coeur d'Alene Tribe, U.S. Forest Service and the IDL.
This year's messages included: wearing a life jacket when on or near water; always wear helmets when riding bikes, skateboards or horses; getting low under smoke and get out quickly; keeping combustibles away from the stove; turning pot and pan handles to the side; reminding parents to always have water and a shovel nearby when you have a campfire; and never leaving the campfire unattended while it is still hot.
"Children who go home and teach their families to be safe have an opportunity to win a bucket loaded with Smokey Bear collectables and a new bike and helmet," said Jim Lyon of Northern Lakes Fire.
The co-op also runs the Safety Village at the North Idaho Fair and participates in Children's Day at a park each summer. For information about the co-op, call O'Shea at 769-1577 or email him at [email protected].