New station opens for Snake River Hotshots

POCATELLO (AP) - The U.S. Bureau of Land Management has opened a new base for a hotshot firefighting crew in southeastern Idaho.

"This is going to be a great facility," said Joe Kraayenbrink, the bureau's district manager in Idaho Falls.

The $2.5 million facility for the Snake River Hotshots officially opened Tuesday with a ribbon-cutting ceremony. The crew has been stationed in Pocatello since 2001, but it has been housed in the old Garrett Freight complex.

The new 6,620-square-foot facility on 2.5 acres in Pocatello will serve as a day-station for the 20-member crew.

"It's pretty exciting," said Snake River Hotshots Superintendent Randy Anderson, placing photos of his hotshot crew in a display case. "It's been a long time coming."

Hotshot crews are considered elite firefighters and often are the first to battle remote fires, skills that require high standards of physical fitness and training.

"Snake River Hotshots go to fires nationwide," Kraayenbrink said. "They pretty much go to the roughest and nastiest terrain to fight fires."

But the crew can also fight fires in southeast Idaho when available.