For the week of August 15 - 21, 2001

Express photos by Willy Cook

Wildfire scorches slopes above Triumph

Air and land fire fight saves homes

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By PETER BOLTZ
Express Staff Writer

Wildfire came so close to Triumph homes on Sunday that bombers dropped retardant directly on houses and splattered onlooking residents.

One homeowner, Richard Kelsey, said the fire raced within 25 to 30 feet of his house at 117 Victor Drive, and that bombers "inundated" his home with foam.

Helicopters were key to controlling the spread of the fire where firefighters had not reached. The two helicopters at the Triumph Fire obtained water refills from temporary pools set up by the Ketchum Fire Department.

Sporting little red-brown spots on the back of his T-shirt, Kelsey said, "I want to thank these guys for saving my home."

John Sabala, Bureau of Land Management fire support manager for South Central Idaho, said the fire was under investigation, but all he revealed was that it was "human caused."

Triumph resident Don Nocito reported the fire after he saw a "twenty-square-yard" fire on the hillside just above the portal to the old Triumph mine.

The portal is a parking area above East Fork Road, across from an old mine tailings field. Because two green portable toilets are visible at the site from below, many people are using them as landmarks to the fire.

Nocito said that besides the fire, he saw "orange sparks hitting the ground." Although he didn’t notice if the sparks were coming from power lines, an electrical transmission line is close to where the fire started.

Chuck Kemper of Queen Bee Air Specialty Inc. lays down a carpet of retardant along a ridge line to keep the wildfire from crossing the ridge. Kemper flew one of two Queen Bee single engine air tankers from Rigby that were in action on the Triumph fire.

Sabala predicted the 800-acre fire would be contained by 8 p.m. Tuesday and controlled by 8 p.m. today. "Contained" means the entire perimeter of the fire has been worked by fire crews extinguishing sparks and removing fuel. "Controlled" means that there is no risk of the fire taking off again.

Sabala said there had been no injuries.

Once the fire got up to strength, it roared up the hillside to the north of Triumph, between Triumph and the Independence Mine, and between Milligan and Triumph gulches.

Ketchum Fire Chief Tom Johnson said the Ketchum Fire Department was the first to respond with units from the Greenhorn Fire Station after the call came in at 2:26 p.m. Sunday. They were on scene at 2:42 p.m.

He said Lt. Miles Canfield, in charge of the initial response, reported a large fire near the Triumph mine moving northeast.

K.F.D. firefighter Melissa Mollet controls the pump that sent the foam up to the firefighters in the picture below. The splatter on her back and helmet shows how close she was to a bombing run by one of the air tankers.

Not long after Canfield’s report, three fire engines and two tankers from Ketchum under the command of Assistant Chief Greg Schwab entered Triumph, and Blaine County Sheriff’s deputies sealed off East Fork Road at Triumph Gulch.

After that, Johnson said, he called in units and firefighters from Wood River Fire and Rescue, Hailey and Bellevue. Johnson eventually took over command of the united force of about 50 firefighters, eight engines, five tankers and an ambulance.

Johnson said his priorities were resident safety and protection of structures. Residents were not forced to leave, he said, but some voluntarily evacuated.

BLM and U.S. Forest Service firefighters joined the local firefighters at 4 p.m.

Single-engine airplane tankers from Queen Bee Air Specialty in Rigby were on the scene about 3:45 p.m., bombing the wildfire with flame retardant.

At one point, the pilot made an especially spectacular and low run at rooftop level. Following the contour of the hillside, he dropped his retardant with pinpoint accuracy between the fire and threatened homes.

Two helicopters came a short time later, drawing water from two portable pools set up by the Ketchum Fire Department on an old tailings field at street level, below the fire’s origin.

BLM and USFS firefighters attempt to control Triumph’s wildfire by setting backfires. Unpredictable winds, however, made the results of such backfires unpredictable.

Pumper trucks kept the pools full as the helicopters made continuous round-trips, dumping water on the fire. They rested only when one of the tankers came in to bomb the flames with retardant.

Pilots dropped their loads of water or retardant on a fire that was more a huge area of flame rather than a wall. Flames were twisted into cyclones 20 to 30 feet high by winds that kept changing direction.

A roadblock by sheriff’s deputies at the Triumph Gulch turnoff kept evacuated residents with their pets, the press and the curious from entering the old mining town. But despite the roadblock, onlookers had a good view of the fire as it progressed east from the entrance to the Triumph mine up East Fork Canyon toward town.

Among the onlookers were Lauren and Baba Street with their son Cade, all of whom had been at the Sun Valley Arts and Crafts Festival when the fire started.

Lauren Street said a woman at the festival noticed the smoke and said, "Look at that big cloud."

Her response was, "That’s no cloud, that’s a fire … in Triumph!"

Wood River Fire and Rescue and Ketchum firefighters spray foam on the fire zone to make double sure no embers will reignite and threaten homes below.

Resident Sally Raabe chose to stay near her home instead of evacuating. After securing her own prized possessions, she went to neighbors’ homes to save their pets and picture albums.

Sheriff’s deputies opened the roadblock to let residents back in at 5:19 p.m. Some of them returned to homes, cars, trailers and driveways painted with the red-brown fire retardant. It was as if a big spray gun had shot down from the sky.

The Ketchum, Hailey and Bellevue fire departments and Wood River Fire and Rescue left at 10 p.m. Sunday.

Sabala said 120 BLM and Forest Service firefighters remained.

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