As public officials and emergency services agencies look back on their performance during the Castle Rock Fire, preliminary estimates are that local and federal firefighting units earned a healthy grade of A.
In fact, Idaho's homeland security director, Bill Bishop, goes further. Speaking through National Guard Lt. Col. Tim Marsano, public affairs officer for the state's military division, Bishop said the Castle Rock firefight was a "model" response to a potential catastrophe that other communities could learn from.
"The cooperation is the best he's seen in a major incident," Marsano said. Bishop was attending a conference and was unavailable directly.
Marsano said Bishop has discussed forming a team of Blaine County officials to visit other communities in Idaho to explain how they organized quickly to confront the 48,000-acre blaze.
Meanwhile, performance critiques are underway throughout Blaine County government and federal agencies to determine what lessons were learned, if any, that could be applied to new policies, plans and emergency response techniques.
Blaine County Commission Chairman Tom Bowman, a key player in the valley-wide operations, had high praise for how federal, county and city agencies were thrown together in the crisis and began functioning as a team within days.
Bowman said officials had a tough time deciding when to evacuate neighborhoods and how to tell residents. He asked key participants to take notes of every decision and every discussion so they could be reviewed at a conference of agency heads at the end of this month.
From the vantage of Ketchum District Ranger Kurt Nelson, the firefighting operation went "amazingly well." He said valley fire and police departments, emergency services and volunteers had the new experience of being part of a quasi-military operation, in which Incident Commander Jeanne Pincha-Tulley of the Forest Service functioned virtually as a military general commanding diverse air and ground units in a battle.
"It was a textbook case of how communities and agencies can respond," Nelson said.
Saying "this incident went about as good as you'll ever see," a more intimate perspective comes from Ketchum Fire Chief Mike Elle, who said that "stress levels got high, fuses got short" because of the 16-hour duty stretches of local emergency crews. Some personnel kept up that pace for 16 days without a break. Elle said new operating policies must include breaks to relieve the stress, policies he said are stringently followed by Forest Service fire crews.
He also suggested that all county and municipal employees should go through incident command training to be prepared for other community crises. He said "we're on our own" before help can reach Blaine County.
"We need to be prepared," he said.
Elle said his department talks about possible emergency scenarios involving an extended power outage that could freeze water pipes and deprive homes of heat, a major hazardous materials spill, flood damage to the Greenhorn Bridge that would split the valley, wind storms, tornadoes, dam failure and even acts of terrorism prompted by the presence of visiting government officials.
The Castle Rock Fire seriously impacted even Friedman Memorial Airport. Airport manager Rick Baird said the valley needs a bigger airport and a modern all-weather landing system. He said smoke density at times created unacceptable reduced visibility and lack of adequate ramp space, prevented larger firefighting aircraft and helicopters from landing to refuel or take on retardants. Baird added that the airport's fire crews would receive training so they can be used if needed in wildfire incidents.
Ketchum City Administrator Ron LaBlanc, who gave high marks for "what we can achieve when working together," already has a shopping list to improve handling of emergencies.
He said more signs for instructing the public during an emergency are needed, along with a shed for storage and a trailer to carry them. He also said a mobile command center with communications and conference space for agency supervisors is necessary. The valley's mountainous topography impairs radio and cell phone transmissions and he said that needs to be solved. He'd also like to see more incident command training for city staff.
A major plus emerged for the city of Ketchum -- the names of hundred of volunteers are now part of a database for use during another crisis.
At St. Luke's Wood River Medical Center, safety officer JoDee Alverson said the hospital found itself in a peculiar situation¾it had to unlearn its normal emergency procedures.
"The Castle Rock Fire experience made us focus on the exact," she said. "(The hospital) has always drilled and practiced situations where there would be an influx of patients entering our facility, which would facilitate the need to have all critical staff in-house to care for the injured and sick."
The fire, she said, required the hospital "to evacuate our staff and patients, so we had to thoughtfully evaluate how to provide high quality emergency services, surgeries and OB deliveries with limited staff."
