Fire scorches hills north of E. Park St., destroys home

By: 
Philip A. Janquart
Editor/Reporter

   One house was lost early Monday morning in a blaze that began in the hills just north of E. Park St. near Weiser.
 An off-duty firefighter and home-owner reported the fire at approximately 12 a.m. after witnessing a strange glow emanating from northwest of his house.
 “I thought, ‘That looks weird,’ so I walked over and I saw flames, and it was, like, ‘Oh, crap!’ I didn’t have my phone with me so I ran home and called it in,” said Weiser Rural Fire Fighter Andrew Bedortha, who was at home with his family when the fire broke out.
 Local fire crews along with crews from Midvale, Payette, New Plymouth, Sand Hollow and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) responded to the fire that began spreading quickly near Loafer Lane to the east toward private homes and ranches, which were evacuated.
 “We had brush engines from New Plymouth, Payette and Sand Hollow,” said Weiser Rural Fire Chief Tim Atwood. “The Boise BLM crew here, called ‘Wild West,’ had three of their engines here and two of their supervisors. They baby-stepped this side of the fire for us all night.”
 The cause of the fire has not yet been determined, the State Fire Marshal spending most of the day on Monday investigating.
 An unnamed elderly woman was evacuated from her house at 1496 E. Park St. before it was engulfed in flames. Small intermittent explosions could still be heard coming from the rubble throughout the morning.
 It is not known whether investigators will be looking into their cause.
 The area was roped off with caution tape for safety.
 The quick response of fire crews thwarted what could have been a more expansive and serious fire that had the potential of taking more homes and property.
 “This was bad enough, but it could have been even worse,” said Atwood. “It’s hard to lose a house. We had to evacuate ranch houses (along E. Park St., going east). I really thought it would end up over there. The wind went down just long enough for us to get a line and stop it. It all came together.”
 Heavy equipment from the Sand Hollow Fire Department was instrumental in stopping the spread of the flames, a bulldozer cutting an eight-foot wide fire line down a steep grade on the hillside from north to south.
 “Yeah, that was kind of impressive,” Atwood said. “Dozer operators have to be a little bit … crazy, but a lot of times, if it’s big, it’s the fastest way to get a line around a fire.”
 Crews began building the line by hand before the dozer arrived on scene, according to Bedortha who said his first plan of action, after calling in the fire, was to evacuate his family.
 “I was scared,” he said. “We are adopting a four-month-old kid, and we have five dogs, pigs and a steer, but we got everyone out. The fire came right up to my property line.”
 Some areas at the base of the hills are covered with perennial rye grass that Atwood said burns up quick.
 Though the cause of the fire has yet to be established, the prevailing suspicion is that fireworks are to blame.
 “The fireworks show was delayed last night because Weiser City got a call for a fire started by fireworks,” said Atwood, when asked about calls stemming from fireworks over the weekend. “And, there was another one right after the show. Well, we got one Thursday night, too.”
 Atwood said people should exercise extreme caution when using fireworks, citing a case on Friday that could have made another bad situation worse.
 “We had a microburst and the roof of a house came up, and smacked the open [power] line and people were shooting off fireworks,” he said. “Deputies are there, the fire chief is there, and all kinds of people are shooting off fireworks. Crazy. The line was laying right over their car and they didn’t care because they were having a good time.”
 A microburst is a common weather event similar to a mini-tornado and can have small, concentrated bursts of winds of up to 100 mph, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
 For more information on summer fire season and related restrictions, visit idahofireinfo.com.
 

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Weiser, ID 83672
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