Blazes fire up in pair of logging operations

It wasn’t long after a fire near Calder was contained Saturday when another nearby blaze caused crews and air tankers to be dispatched to the St. Joe Forest more than 50 miles southeast of Coeur d’Alene.

After burning about 40 acres in an active logging job in the St. Joe River drainage east of St. Maries, the Mica Creek Fire was 100 percent contained, mostly with the aid of hand crews, tanker trucks and logging equipment. By Monday crews were mopping up.

Meanwhile, the Lick Creek Fire, near Avery, was burning hot Monday, according to the Forest Service. Air tankers and smaller fixed-wing planes over the weekend dumped repellent on the 200-acre Lick Creek fire burning in heavy logging slash and timber about 6 miles south-southwest of Avery, in the Lick Creek drainage.

By Monday, the fire was partially encircled by a dozer line, and more than three-fourths of the area had been doused by repellent, Kary Maddox of the Forest Service said.

“We’re working on containment,” Maddox said. “That’s always a tricky calculation to make.”

The Lick Creek Fire had already scorched around 50 acres when it was discovered Friday burning in logging slash and timber. By the end of the day the fire had grown to approximately 100 acres. Two air tankers, a pontoon plane and six single-engine, fixed-wing planes dropped retardant on the fire until dark. By Sunday a Type 3 Incident Management Team comprised of about 120 firefighters took command of the fire, Maddox said.

Both fires started in logging operations. The Mica Creek Fire was on moderate to steep ground on state endowment land south of the river town of Calder. Crews from the Idaho Department of Lands along with a logging crew fought the fire, Dan Brown of the lands department said.

About 80 people fought the blaze on the ground. Two engines, two bulldozers, as well as two helicopters, three water tenders, and two single-engine air tankers dropped water and retardant.

“It was contained to the logging job,” Brown said.

He expected mop-up operations to be completed by Thursday.

The slash in the Lick Creek fire, burning on a southern slope and open ground, was dry and the fire quickly spread in the dry fuels, Maddox said.

“It was burning in slash and it was hot and windy, so it got some legs,” Maddox said.

The cause of both fires is under investigation.

Maddox was among workers Saturday at the Coeur d’Alene tanker base that sent four air tankers, including a 737 jet that carries 36,000 pounds of repellent, to Lick Creek over the weekend.

The Forest Service sent seven single-engine, fixed-wing planes — they look like crop dusters but are filled with repellent — four air tankers and three pontoon planes to the skies over Lick Creek.

The Lick Creek fire is burning land owned primarily by Potlatch Corp., with a portion of the land, around 20 acres, under federal jurisdiction. The St. Joe has checkerboard land ownership, which means that adjoining sections are privately or publicly owned. Private owners such as Potlatch contract with the federal government for fire control.

One firefighter suffered a burned hand in the Mica Creek fire. No injuries have been reported at Lick Creek.

This summer has, so far, been an average fire season, Maddox said. Fuel loads and their ability to catch fire and burn — which is monitored by the Forest Service — has been about average despite higher than usual amounts of precipitation.

“We’re calling it an average fire season over a 15-year period,” Maddox said.

Aside from the two large fires, two smaller burns have also been reported in the Panhandle. A 5-acre fire near Lunch Peak in the Sandpoint district was reported and quenched last month. And a 5-acre fire at Mosquito Creek near the headwaters of the North Fork of the Coeur d’Alene River is still actively burning.