By TOM BOWMAN
There must have been something in the air on Friday Aug. 17. That was the morning a small fire 15 miles out Warm Springs Road being attacked by smoke-jumpers was reported to me by Chuck Turner our County Disaster Coordinator.
From my frequent visits to the forests west of Highway 75, I was aware of the conditions of the fuels and immediately started discussions with Chuck on the mechanics of declaring a disaster, and then did so at 2:30 that afternoon. At the moment I did not know that Ketchum District Ranger Kurt Nelson shared my apprehension because at about the same time he requested a top Type-1 fire overhead management team.
At 6 p.m. I spoke with the general manager of Sun Valley Company, Wally Huffman, and informed him that I intended to impress upon the Forest Service the tremendous value to this community of not only Bald Mountain but the entire recreational resource. Two weeks later, the fire climbed up the back of Baldy.
With the fire declared contained Sept. 4, we can now look back on what was truly an extraordinary event for our community.
On that first Sunday as the fire started heading north, we were able to pull together a local command team to deal with public information, logistics, law enforcement, volunteers, fire operations and so on. The first public meeting at Ernest Hemingway Elementary School was held the next day, and we were introduced to Team 3 from California, our Type 1 Incident Management team. So, believe me. A lot was happening in a very short time, and it could not have occurred without overwhelming community support and volunteerism.
People have been very kind in expressing to me their gratitude, but I need to remind everyone that I was just the face in front of, incredibly, more than 700 people who signed up to help with everything from boarding horses, to staffing information lines.
The massive outpouring of kindness, gratitude and courage of all of our full- and part-time residents was remarkable, and I believe was reflected in the efforts of every firefighter on the fire line. Incident Commander Jeane Pincha-Tulley made a point to express to us that she has never experienced another community that has come together as we did, and we should be very proud of this place we call home.
There is not space to recognize everyone, but needed to be mentioned are the people who were in City Hall wrestling with the very difficult decisions that faced us almost every day. Randy Hall, Mike McNees, Ron LeBlanc, Gene Ramsey, Cory Lyman, Chuck Turner, Gary Davis, Kim Rogers, Brenda Lidstrom, Lilly Opple, John Urquart, Marisa Nelson, Heidi Dohse, Sarah Michael, Clint Stennett, Nils Ribi, Walt Femling, Mike Elle, Cynthia Miley, Kurt Nelson, Steve Wolper and Cindy Jesinger.
Apologies to those I inadvertently missed. Special thanks to the city of Ketchum for letting us take over their city hall and Plum TV and Cox Communications for pulling together, against all odds, live broadcasts of our public meetings to keep people informed without putting cars on the highway.
One more note to me from a fire chief from southern Idaho:
"Our department served nine days on the Castle Rock fire with a structure truck. Over the last few years I have not spent much time in the Ketchum-Sun Valley area, mainly because of all the people in the area. I would like to say that the people are the best I have run into for years. They would offer our people food, housing and I believe the shirt off their back. What a great community you folks have."
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Tom Bowman is chairman of the Blaine County Board of Commissioners.
