In August 2015, smoke pollution hovered over the city of Moscow for several weeks as surrounding fires continued to burn throughout the Northwest.
Forest fires were periodically buring in the surrounding states of Oregon, Montana and Washington, and the smoke carried over to the Palouse. This created a hazardous atmosphere at the beginning of the 2015 fall semester.
“I couldn’t even recall a year to compared to (2015). We had a lot of fires in our area headed up in the Clearwater over into western Montana,” said Erik Kelly, Batallion Chief of the Lewiston Fire Department.
Though this year’s fire season hasn’t been as extreme yet, Kelly said there are still precautionary measures people can take if the wildfire season makes a larger impact on the Palouse in the future.
Kelly said that fire season usually runs until the first week of October. He said it only takes some wind and lightning to start fires that could threaten the community.
On the Caribou-Targhee National Forest small fires continue to burn in Carrot, Lanes Creek and the Black and Big Elk fires. Due to fires frequently occuring in the middle and northern parts of Idaho, precautions can be taken to prevent further damage to local communities.
There are evacuation steps to be aware of in case of emergencies, said Kelly. The precautionary steps can be found on the Lewiston Fire Department Facebook page, called the “My Personal Wildland Fire Action Plan.”
The Lewiston Fire Department also encourages individuals to wear filter medical masks when the atmosphere is hazardous to prevent medical issues.
“Nobody likes to breath that kind of air, and my suggestion is if we want less bad air in the Northwest … is to begin to reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” said Gary Macfarlane, ecosystem defense director for Friends of the Clearwater. “In the long-term, the best thing we can do to influence fire is with fire policy … That is something we have direct control over.”
Macfarlane said for people who live in rural areas or small cities relatively close to national forests, there are precautionary steps that a community can take as a whole to protect those districts. Actions such as pruning trees, adding metal roofs to houses or keeping any flammable objects distant from private property he said can go a long way. He recommended anyone near a forest to keep trees at least 150 feet away from their houses.
Kelly said that it is good to be precautionary toward the end of this fire season.
“At least things are cooling off now at night a little bit, and we have a little bit more darkness,” he said. “ So, it’s slowly dwindling.”
Macfarlane said early this summer was a relatively wet season compared to other years, and far fewer fires have occurred through the rest of the season. He said despite this, people should look at the short-term and long-term effects that forest fires have on the environment and the community should be aware of both the hazards and benefits of forest fires.
Catherine Keenan
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