Norris: No ban on fireworks

COEUR d’ALENE — Bryan Hicks has been fighting fires for 30 years. He said the current drought and high temperatures have created the potential for blazes unlike almost any other.

“This is some of the most extreme conditions we’ve seen in North Idaho,” he said Thursday. “This is serious business.”

Hicks, fire warden of the Mica Supervisory Area with the Idaho Department of Lands, compared it to 2015, which was another hot, dry year with a busy fire season. It included the Cape Horn fire that destroyed several homes and forced about 200 residents in Bayview to flee.

He doesn't want to see anything like that happen again and called on the public to be cautious this Fourth of July weekend.

“Our folks have been rolling on a lot of human-caused fires,” he said.

Kootenai County Sheriff Bob Norris, with local police and fire chiefs, held a press conference Thursday to stress to the public “that aerial and other non-safe and sane fireworks are illegal and are extremely dangerous. We are encouraging everyone to refrain from their use.”

Norris said he does not support a ban of fireworks "for our citizens in our freedom-loving county."

He said he believes asking for cooperation is the best way to proceed, “not a mandate, not a law, not a restriction.”

He urged people to attend one of the professional fireworks displays in the county rather than light their own.

“With our freedom comes responsibility,” he said.

Norris also added that in order to ban fireworks in the county it would take cooperation from local governments, include the Coeur d'Alene Tribe, and have to come from the county's commissioners.

He said a ban this close to the holiday and after fireworks stands have opened would be difficult to enforce.

"If there was a consideration to ban fireworks in the county, this should have been a conversation weeks ago, not three days prior to the 4th of July," he said in a press release.

Pat Riley, fire chief of the Northern Lakes Fire Protection District, said they are already stretched thin and worries this could be a trying weekend. He knows that people want to celebrate after living with coronavirus restrictions for so long.

“I’m simply asking that people do so responsibly,” he said.

Riley said they are doing their best to get to fires early and stop them from spreading, and have been effective.

Fireworks could ignite big blazes.

“If you do start a fire as a result of these fireworks, you would be liable of the suppression costs of putting that fire out," Riley said, adding the cost runs in the thousands of dollars per hour.

Extra police officers and firefighters will be on standby on July 4.

Norris said he has a “no day off” policy for the Fourth. CDA Fire Chief Kenny Gabriel said they will have a boat in the water at Tubbs Hill and six extra rigs ready to roll.

Meantime, KCSO, the Kootenai County Fire Chiefs Association, Idaho Department of Lands and Office of Emergency Management will be hosting a community preparedness meeting 6 to 8 p.m. July 8 at the Kootenai County Office of Emergency Management, 1662 W. Wyoming Ave.

They will be discussing updates on the fire conditions, explain the concerns facing responders, give tips and resources to protect property and help residents formulate a plan in case of a major event.

“The best way to protect your families and property is to have a well-thought-out plan and notify first responders at the first sign of a problem," a press release said.