Wednesday, August 8, 2007

Electrical storm provides dangerous spectacle

Lightning strikes valley 218 times, causes fires


By EXPRESS STAFF
Express Staff Writer

Firefighters from the Wood River Fire & Rescue, Hailey, Bellevue, Bureau of Land Management, Ketchum, and Sun Valley fire departments responded to a number of calls that resulted from an intense electrical storm on Saturday, Aug. 4. Lightning strikes caused two fires near Bellevue and downed a tree in Colorado Gulch that blocked traffic. Photo by David N. Seelig

A violent storm cell blew through the Wood River Valley on Saturday, Aug. 4, and had area firefighters scrambling in response to a multitude of calls received by emergency dispatch.

Wood River Fire & Rescue Chief Bart Lassman said the South Central Idaho Interagency Dispatch Center in Shoshone recorded 218 lightning strikes in the Wood River Valley from 11:15 to 11:30 a.m.

Lassman said he received a rapid succession of calls around 12:30 a.m. reporting fires or accidents caused by the storm, giving area fire departments five separate incidents to deal with simultaneously.

"I can't remember calls for that many lightning strikes at once," Lassman said. "We had five reported fires that we were dispatched to in three to five minutes."

The largest blaze was the Townsend Gulch Fire, located off of Glendale Road in the Poverty Flats area south of Bellevue. A lightning strike set off what turned into a 15-acre fire in sagebrush and grass on Pete VanDerMuelen's property. Lassman said no structures were threatened and that it took firefighters, commanded by Wood River Captain Shane Quarles, 45 minutes to contain the fire.

In addition to Wood River, crews from the Bellevue, Hailey, Bureau of Land Management, Sun Valley and Ketchum fire departments helped extinguish two fires and respond to reports of numerous other areas where lightning struck, but didn't start confirmed fires.

While smaller in size, the Maybelle Hill Fire, a 1-acre blaze on the west side of Highway 75 near Wood River Ranch, took approximately an hour and a half to contain due to a shower of sparks coming off of burning vegetation, Lassman said. He added that the fires were completely extinguished, and firefighters had left the scenes by 3:30 p.m.

There were reports of a fire in the Muldoon subdivision, where lightning struck between two houses, and another fire in the Triumph area, but neither was confirmed, and no evidence of fire discovered. In addition, there was a call for a downed tree that was blocking Colorado Gulch Road, preventing traffic from passing.

Wood River received mutual aid in the form of personnel, as well as two structure engines, a water tender and brush truck. After initial calls, Sun Valley Helitack took to the skies for reconnaissance, and a single-air tanker and spotter plan were sent from Twin Falls.

"They get up in the air and try and find out how many fires are in the area," Lassman said.

Lassman said a staging area was set up at the corner of Highway 75 and Glendale Road where emergency personnel were coordinated and sent to the various scenes. Lassman said the local agencies are getting very good at working together and responding quickly to fires in a summer featuring radically dry conditions.

"I am very proud of my personnel and all of the personnel from the different agencies," Lassman said. "Most of the firefighters are primarily volunteers, and everyone is doing what they can to respond. They are making themselves available at all times, including weekends and nights, when they could be with their families or up at the lake."

This hard work did not go unnoticed.

"The fire departments were able to dispatch crews fast enough to stop this lightning-caused fire from spreading to the river bottom, which would have been disastrous," wrote Norma Yager, owner of the Wood River Ranch, in a thank-you letter to the firefighters. "Our community was very lucky on Saturday that our professional crew did a great job."




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