For the week of July 7, 1999  thru July 13, 1999  

Few arrested during holiday revelry

Fender bender, fires, bumps and bruises


By GREG MOORE
Express Staff Writer

Local emergency service providers reported a busy but fairly uneventful July Fourth weekend.

The holiday included its usual share of drunk drivers. The Blaine County Sheriff’s Office made three DUI arrests on Friday and three on Saturday. Four allegedly drunk drivers were arrested in Hailey on Friday. However, none were reported in Ketchum, Sun Valley or Bellevue.

"All we did was write a bunch of speeding tickets," said Bellevue Marshall Jeff Gunter about the weekend.

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l7rollover.jpg (13080 bytes)The Sun Valley Police Department on Friday responded to a vehicle accident in a parking lot of the Sun Valley Lodge condominiums.

According to Police Chief Cam Daggett, a visiting eighteen-year-old with a learner’s permit borrowed his mother’s Jeep Cherokee and backed it into a parked Chevrolet Suburban. The youth then pulled forward and drove into an irrigation ditch, rolling the Jeep onto its side, Daggett said.

Daggett said the young man was cited for the accident, which caused about $1,500 damage to each vehicle.

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Rodeo spectators were given a scare Saturday night when a cowboy was thrown from a bull and slammed head first into the metal bars of a chute. The cowboy, whose name was not released, was transported by ambulance to the Wood River Medical Center in Sun Valley where he was treated and released.

According to Mike Kimball, the rodeo’s bullfighter, or clown, the injured cowboy was an experienced bull rider riding in the hometown competition. Kimball said the cowboy received a light concussion and bruises, but was able to travel to another rodeo the next day. Kimball said many of the cowboys compete in as many as six rodeos over the July Fourth weekend.

"There were a lot of them riding sore and hurt," he said.

Kimball said a few rodeo cowboys wear helmets. He said a rule requiring them to be wearing a cowboy hat when they leave the chute has been eliminated to enable them to do that.

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Two structure fires broke out over the weekend.

The Hailey Fire Department was called out shortly after 1 p.m. Friday to put out a fire at Woodmont condos in South Woodside.

Fire Chief Mike Chapman said the fire was started by an unknown cause in a planter on the front porch of one of the units. He said it burned through the deck and had begun to climb the wall of the building when it was discovered by someone outside.

Chapman said neighbors had extinguished most of the fire by the time fire fighters arrived. He said two engines and six fire fighters responded.

"We just had to do a little overhaul," he said.

Chapman praised the neighbors for their quick action, particularly since there were two people in the building at the time.

"It could have been interesting if it had gone for a few more minutes," he said. "And that’s all it would have taken."

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The Sun Valley Fire Department was called into action Sunday night shortly after the finish of the fireworks display there to extinguish a fire started by a barbecue grill.

According to Sun Valley Fire Chief Jeff Carnes, the fire started shortly before midnight at a home on Fairway Road when a large, built-in grill on the house’s deck either malfunctioned or overheated after being left on.

"They came back to their house and the entire back deck was on fire," Carnes said.

Carnes said an engine and eight firefighters arrived within four minutes of the call and had the fire out in about five minutes. He said the fire did $5,000 to $10,000 worth of damage to the grill and surrounding cabinets.

 

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