Fire danger could be high this summer
"We’re still green up here, but June will make or break
us."
Troy Hagan, Sawtooth National Forest assistant fire
management officer, on Idaho’s potential fire danger.
By GREG STAHL
Express Staff Writer
The forest fires spreading across the West this spring could be indicative
of what might happen in Idaho’s forests this summer, Sawtooth National Forest
assistant fire management officer Troy Hagan said Friday.
"It’s extremely dry. So far, all indicators are, yes," he
responded when asked if the fires blazing around the West could take hold in Idaho as
temperatures rise and the flora dries.
Hagan, 35, has fought fires for the U.S. Forest Service for 15 years and
was one of several Sawtooth National Forest firefighters to tame fires in New Mexico that
occurred during the disastrous Los Alamos blaze.
"There were lots of ground fires and very high intensities," he
said. "All that was left was a lot of charred landscape and a few
foundations—extreme fire behavior."
Hagan worked on two fires, both south of Los Alamos, in Southern New
Mexico. The so-called Cree Fire and Scott Able Fire, he said, consumed approximately
16,000 acres each. They burned near the town of Ruidoso in the Lincoln National Forest.
One started when a tree fell on a power line, and the other when a
campfire was left unattended.
"It was just dry," he said. "They had 12,000-foot peaks
without a drop of snow on them."
And dry weather patterns have already taken hold in Idaho this spring.
"We’re still green up here, but June will make or break us. We
were low on precipitation for May. We’ll wait to see what June brings us," Hagan
said via telephone from the Sawthooth National Recreation Area’s Stanley ranger
station.
Hagan, a native of Oregon, said he can’t remember a summer when Idaho
or the Northwest didn’t have a few forest fires. It’s just a matter of how many
fires there will be, he said.
He warned that those heading out to camp should take extra caution to make
sure their campfires are completely extinguished before leaving them.
"Keep them small and secure," he said.
Last year, there were 49 forest or brush fires in the Sawtooth National
Forest. The 15-year average is 51 fires a year, Sawtooth spokesman Ed Waldapfel said in a
Friday interview.
Last year, 6,095 acres burned in the Sawtooth. The 15-year average is
7,109 acres, he said.
Many of last year’s fires, he added, were small, lightning-caused
fires.
"We’ll see what happens this year," he said.
"It’s tough to tell this early."
Fires continued to rip across the West in New Mexico, Arizona and Colorado
last week as hot and dry temperatures fanned the flames.
