Crews kill spot fire on Tubbs
LOREN BENOIT/Press Matt Smith with the Coeur d’Alene Fire Department sprays down a 20-by-20-foot hot spot early Friday afternoon on Tubbs Hill. The fire is under investigation.
Coeur d'Alene firefighter Matt Smith sprays down a 20-by-20 foot hot spot early Friday afternoon on the McEuen Park side of Tubbs Hill. The cause of the fire is under investigation. (LOREN BENOIT/Press)
By RALPH BARTHOLDT
Staff Writer
COEUR d’ALENE — A small fire on Tubbs Hill sent a plume of smoke into the partially clouded sky over Coeur d’Alene Friday afternoon as firefighters scrambled to the northeast side of the hill above McEuen Park.
No one was injured in the crackling and spark-spitting blaze that burned a small patch of brush and grass about 20 feet in diameter.
The Coeur d’Alene Fire Department sent two engines to the scene around 2 p.m. and firefighters dragged hose uphill from a hydrant near the park’s northeast parking lot.
The blaze was extinguished within a half hour.
“The cause is undetermined,” said department fire inspector Craig Etherton. “I didn’t have a good ignition source up there, but more than likely it’s human caused.”
Tubbs Hill, the city’s respite and recreation area in the middle of town, sees hundreds of visitors daily and human-caused fires, especially in summer, are not unusual.
By mid-August in 2015, as an example, firefighters had extinguished 14 blazes on Tubbs.
Friday’s fire was the second fire on Tubbs this season. Less than a month ago, firefighters extinguished a grass fire on Tubbs, which was the first grass fire of the season, according to the department.
Many of the fires are caused by smokers. Tubbs is officially a city park and smoking is prohibited on the hill, he said.
“It falls under those restrictions,” he said.
Drying conditions prompted the fire district this week to quit issuing burn permits for the summer.
That means that slash burning, burn barrels and the burning of garden waste are off limits until the district lifts the burn ban. People who were issued permits will be allowed to use them until they expire within the next 10 days, Etherton said.
The district includes all of Kootenai County.