Limepoint Fire Update - Over 32,000 Acres Burned, $33 Million Spent and 93% Contained
The Limepoint Fire, which at one time had close to 600 people working on it, and which was started by lightning on July 24th, is as of the middle of last week, down to 292 people. The cost of fighting this fire to date as of August 31st, is $33 million.
Of course, not all the people working on the Limepoint fire are firefighters. Some are accountants, some work in logistics, some are medical staff, and others work for organizations that have a service contract, like cooks and other people who prepare food for the firefighters and are not counted in this number have different jobs related to the fire but who are not firefighters.
A Sysco food truck makes deliveries to one of the semi’s set up to prepare the meals, which are now being driven, instead of flown, to the fire fighters at the Seven Devils Lodge.
One of the two current Public Information Officers (PIO) Brett Taylor, who hails from Reno, Nevada, where he works for the Truckee Meadows Fire Protection District, said that much of his usual work relates to fire prevention. This season he’s been on six fires, two of which were large ones.
In July, he worked as PIO on the Silver King Fire in Utah, and for the next few weeks, he is doing the same job on the Limepoint Fire. He said that he’s been eating a lot of camp meals this summer, along with everyone else assigned to the fires.
Taylor said that as of last week, the fire was 88% contained. (The fire is reportedly 93% contained as of September 2.)
Initially, there were two Complex teams working on the fire. Nevada Team Five, the current incident management team, is a Type Three team. There are teams that range from Type Complex to Type Five, depending on their size and skill levels. Complex Type One teams are able to manage the largest and most complex fires.
The teams are scheduled to work 14 days, take a certain amount of rest days and then typically go to work on a different fire. And while this method of moving teams from fire to fire seems costly, PIO Tammy Boyd, also from Nevada, explained that each fire requires teams with different skill sets. She said the last team to work on the Limepoint Fire was a Complex team because a bigger team with a broader skill set was required then.
It is interesting to note that the Limepoint Fire and the Wapiti Fire (near Stanley) were both started by lightning on the same day, and yet as of August 31st, the Wapiti Fire is 92,308 acres and $10.8 million has been spent fighting this fire, while the Limepoint Fire, on August 31st is 32,736 acres and 33 million dollars has been spent fighting this fire.
Taylor said one explanation is that it’s possible that the Wapiti Fire stayed small for a number of days before blowing up, and that it is also possible that there weren’t enough crews available to relocate to that fire. He said he expects the cost of that fire to go up.
Taylor said right now, teams working on the Limepoint Fire are primarily repairing lines made by dozers and hand crew as they worked to put out and contain the fire.
“They are working on suppression and repair, moving the soil back in place and assessing whether there are potential timber sales within the fire area. They are reducing the footprint of, and impact done, by the machines and people fighting the fire,” he said.
Taylor expects the current team to hand over management of the fire to the Payette National Forest when they finish their current rotation on September 6th.
Also, the three helicopters that were stationed at the Council Airport have now relocated to the McCall Airport, where Taylor said the pilots can get the support they need. McCall has a helibase manager, something the Council Airport was unable to supply. Also, he said that McCall has motels, where the pilots can stay after their 14-hour shift. They relocated on August 24th.
As for who is going to pay the 33 million dollar cost of the Limepoint Fire, Brian Harris, Payette National Forest Public Affairs Officer, said the Payette National Forest has a budget for suppressing fires. Once that budget is exceeded, the US Forest Service will pay the remainder of the cost.
