by Bill Maison

As of today, there are 29 wildfires in Idaho, Montana, Washington, and Oregon.

The largest fire now and the one that has been causing the smoke issues in the Clearwater Valley is the School Fire south of Pomeroy,WA, which is at 42,000 acres and only 40 percent contained.

Idaho currently has six large fires; the Long Black Complex which is burning along the North Fork of the Clearwater in Black Canyon is 200 acres and 75 percent contained. Command of this fire is expected to transfer back to the local forest today.

Two new fires were reported south of Grangeville Tuesday. The China Ten Fire is in the Nez Perce National Forest and is reported to be 700+ acres with zero containment reported. The other fire the Blackerby Fire is seven miles up Highway 14 and is reported to be 554 acres with five percent containment. It is threatening some structures along Cove Road. Both of these fries will be managed utilizing different Type II Incident Management Teams.

The Long Ruggles fire is 12 miles south of Cottonwood and is 800 acres and is 10 percent contained. The Cadegan Complex is burning in the Salmon-Challis National Forest. It is reported to be 1,300 acres and 10 percent contained. The last incident to note is the Stoddard Creek fire in the Salmon-Challis Forest. This fire is being managed to accomplish resource objectives set by the forest.

The 10 year average for fires is 56,496 and 3,204,184 acres burned. So far this year, we are still below the average for number of fires with 41,227 but still way over the 10 year average for acres with 5,495,236.

It is recommended that landowners make sure they have defensible space around their homes of at least 30 feet and in some cases up to 100 feet depending on the fuels and slope around their houses. A good website to visit is the FireWise web site at www.firewise.org.

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