'No man's land' in Latah County

Fire district coverage can determine if a home is saved or destroyed by a fire in rural Latah and Whitman counties.

Luckily for those in Whitman County, every mile within the county is provided fire protection. The same cannot be said for Latah County, where areas in the southern-most portion of the county, near Kendrick and Juliaetta, are largely unprotected.

Genesee Fire Chief Bill Krick said his department is often called to combat fires well outside of its district - in area's he refers to as "no man's land."

"To the south of us there is no fire protection," he said, noting it's the same for the area between Genesee and Juliaetta.

Krick said the Genesee Fire District must often decide whether or not it should dispatch the city's resources to a fire outside of its district. Sometimes he must weigh whether or not volunteer firefighters should respond immediately or wait until the fire reaches the district and run the risk of the blaze growing out of control.

"Those people (outside the district) aren't paying for those services," he said, adding the burden of cost solely falls on Genesee residents.

That, however, does not usually stop the department from responding, he said. Krick said the GVFD only sends as much equipment and resources as the fire requires, and he makes sure to leave enough trucks and volunteers in Genesee in the event the department needs to respond to a blaze within its own district.

Krick said the Moscow Rural Fire District, Troy Volunteer Fire Department and several fire districts out of Whitman County consistently provide mutual aid for one another as well.

"Those situations are how the systems should work," Krick said.

He said timber fires are the most difficult to fight, and many volunteer rural fire departments do not have the equipment or training to safely and effectively combat a blaze that has spread to a wooded area.

While miles and miles of national forest in eastern Latah County are not protected by a fire district, the Idaho Department of Lands and the Clearwater-Potlatch Timber Protective Association protect nearly a million acres of land in the north-central area of Idaho, which includes the timber and farmland in the Juliaetta-Kendrick area and south of Genesee that is not protected by a fire district.

Krick said the IDL is more equipped to fight those timber fires.

"If it gets into the timber, that is when it can get dicey," Krick said.

He said his department will respond initially to try to keep the blaze somewhat contained, as it can take IDL sometimes up to six hours to respond during the peak of fire season.

Kevin Renfrow, who works for the South Latah Highway District, said he was a part of a committee in 2003 and 2005 that tried to pass a joint rural fire department that would have included Juliaetta, Kendrick and a corner of Nez Perce County.

Both years the proposal passed in Nez Perce County only to fail in Latah County - including once by nine votes.

Both Juliaetta and Kendrick have volunteer fire departments but neither city typically responds to fires outside of their city limits.

Latah County Elections Deputy Clerk Victoria Shortt said the County Commissioners have discussed a joint rural department in recent years, but no formal legal actions have been taken to form one.

It's a different story in Whitman County, where there is no national forest land and every mile in the county falls under a fire district.

While each district has its own specific area to cover, District 12 Fire Chief Lester Erwin said they all provide agency assistance to one another on a regular basis.

"If we are paged to (a fire) we will go until we are told it is someone else's and to go home," he said.

With little timber land in Whitman County to protect, Erwin said strong wind is often the biggest hurdle for firefighters to overcome.

"The grassy areas can burn pretty slow, but if you get the wind blowing that can change real fast," he said

Erwin said difficult terrain in the Snake River canyon can also be problematic.

He said it typically takes about 20 minutes for volunteers to respond from the District 12 fire station, and the steep inclines and rocky grounds force firefighters to fight blazes there on foot.

Katie Short can be reached at 208-883-4633 or by email at kshort@dnews.com.