Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Crews extinguish blaze near Trail Creek

Late-season wildfire deemed ‘accidental’


By KATHERINE WUTZ
Express Staff Writer

A late-season wildfire near Trail Creek northeast of Sun Valley drew an eight-person response from two local fire departments Saturday afternoon.

Ketchum Fire Department Assistant Fire Chief Robbie Englehart said the fire started as a campfire that got out of control when winds kicked up unexpectedly.

“It was accidental,” he said. “This girl from out of town had stopped at Antelope Creek, near the camping spots out there.”

Englehart said the woman had thrown papers on the remains of a smoldering campfire and turned away to hit golf balls off a nearby cliff. When the woman turned back, the wind had kicked up the burning paper and blown it across an area roughly 80 by 20 feet.

A Ketchum Fire Department brush truck, a Ketchum ambulance and two chiefs—one from the Sun Valley Fire Department—responded to the scene at about 3:30 p.m., Englehart said. He said there were eight firefighters on scene, including one Ketchum Fire Department volunteer who also is a U.S. Forest Service firefighter.

Englehart said the woman tried to extinguish the blaze using soda and other liquids she had in the car before a passerby stopped and helped put it out with a shovel. Crews then arrived to mop up the fire. No injuries were reported.

Englehart said that though it is late in the season for wildfires, the warm temperatures and lack of snow allow for the potential of a fire.

“There’s always a chance of having wildfires until the ground is really wet or there’s snow on the ground,” he said. “It’s all dependent on weather.”

Kate Wutz: kwutz@mtexpress.com




About Comments

Comments with content that seeks to incite or inflame may be removed.

Comments that are in ALL CAPS may be removed.

Comments that are off-topic or that include profanity or personal attacks, libelous or other inappropriate material may be removed from the site. Entries that are unsigned or contain signatures by someone other than the actual author may be removed. We will take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards, terms of use or any other policies governing this site. Use of this system denotes full acceptance of these conditions. Please review the full rules governing commentaries and discussions. You are fully responsible for the content that you post.

The comments below are from the readers of mtexpress.com and in no way represent the views of Express Publishing, Inc.

You may flag individual comments. You may also report an inappropriate or offensive comment by clicking here.

Flagging Comments: Flagging a comment tells a site administrator that a comment is inappropriate. You can find the flag option by pointing the mouse over the comment and clicking the 'Flag' link.

Flagging a comment is only counted once per person, and you won't need to do it multiple times.

Proper Flagging Guidelines: Every site has a different commenting policy - be sure to review the policy for this site before flagging comments. In general these types of comments should be flagged:

  • Spam
  • Ones violating this site's commenting policy
  • Clearly unrelated
  • Personal attacks on others
Comments should not be flagged for:
  • Disagreeing with the content
  • Being in a dispute with the commenter

Popular Comment Threads



 Local Weather 
Search archives:


Copyright © 2024 Express Publishing Inc.   Terms of Use   Privacy Policy
All Rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of Express Publishing Inc. is prohibited. 

The Idaho Mountain Express is distributed free to residents and guests throughout the Sun Valley, Idaho resort area community. Subscribers to the Idaho Mountain Express will read these stories and others in this week's issue.