Firefighters camp at Priest Lake will be used for regionwide deployments

Firefighters will be a common sight in Priest Lake this summer, with the creation of a camp that will dispatch crews to wildfires throughout the region.

The facilities set up at the Priest Lake Ranger District will host up to 150 firefighters at a time. The camp was created to house crews currently working to suppress three wildfires burning near Priest Lake and Bonners Ferry, and it will remain in place after those fires die down.

The area is centrally located to provide firefighters to Western Montana, North Idaho and northeast Washington.

“We have a lot of room … we have showers and catering … and we’re near an airstrip,” said Jill Cobb, fire information officer for the Northern Idaho Incident Management Team. “The crews will stay in a location that’s safe and where they can be dispatched quickly.”

Firefighters can work for 14 days at a time, but then they must take two days off to rest.

Cobb said local residents have embraced the firefighters, delivering “truckloads of cookies,” along with toiletries such as eye drops and body wipes. Not everyone gets a shower every day, so “body wipes are like gold up there,” she said.

About 270 firefighters are working to contain the Blacktail and Granite fires, which are burning west of Priest Lake and Nordman, and the Bakers Camp fire north of Bonners Ferry. No structures are threatened by the fires.

But after several recent incidents, the command team is asking local residents to be mindful of firefighters’ safety in the Priest Lake camp and their need for rest. Gunshots have been fired after dark near the eating and showering facilities, which are at a gravel pit off Ravin Ranch Road that has historically been used for target shooting.

In addition, one of the crews was awakened by the smell of smoke about a week ago. The firefighters – who had come off a 16-hour shift – had to get up and put out a small fire near their camp. Charcoal briquettes had been dumped in the woods two days earlier, smoldering until they flared up and ignited brush and grass, Cobb said.

On Sunday, firefighters were also called to put out an unattended campfire near Stagger Inn, a primitive Forest Service campground.

“It was a lucky catch that someone was around to report it,” Cobb said. “We’re asking for the public’s help in preventing forest fires … That saying has never been more true than right now.”

Most local residents are extremely grateful to the firefighters, who are battling the blazes about 4 miles west of Priest Lake and 6 miles northwest of Nordman, said Gaye Oscarson, an employee of Autumn’s Loft. The gallery on Highway 57 is a dropoff point for people who want to donate supplies to the firefighters. Homemade baked goods, bottles of water and energy drinks, and toiletries have been donated.

“People just want to show their support and gratitude,” Oscarson said. “It’s been neat and really encouraging.”

Overcast skies, cooler temperatures and higher humidity gave firefighters a break on Monday, but temperatures are expected to warm up again later in the week.

“We are in for a very long fire season,” Cobb said.