MOUNTAIN HOME, Idaho — Stuart Griffin is manning the Danskin Fire Lookout this summer, it's his first time as a lookout as he has a 360-degree view from this historical lookout at 6,800 feet.
"Living up here is really interesting," said Griffin. "I really enjoy it."
The Boise National Forest features almost ten staffed fire lookouts to provide them with eyes on top of mountains throughout the national forest.
The Danskin Fire Lookout was built in 1941 as these historic structures still play a pivotal role in fighting fire. Stuart Griffin uses an alidade to determine the location of a potential fire if he sees smoke. The alidade dates back to 1911.
The alidade is basically a topographical map arranged in a circle providing a birds eye view with lookout tower in the middle. If Stuart sees smoke he will try to pinpoint a location on the map.
"We find our locations based on it’s called a township, a range, and a section it ends up being one of these little bitty squares and one of these little bitty squares within the square, "said Griffin. "The ring rotates around and you look through this little peephole and line up the little crosshairs made of string."
This will provide Griffin with an azimuth reading and he can relay those coordinates on to dispatch. However, he's also coordinating and triangulating with other fire lookouts to provide a more accurate location. Stuart used this process on Wednesday when he saw smoke 40 miles away.
"I was looking at smoke from this way while Trinity was looking at it from this way and he was able to call Silver Creek Lookout," said Griffin. "Dispatch came back and said that’s the Flat Fire."
Griffin told us he's seen several fires on Interstate 84 and having that 360-degree view allows him to see pretty far from the top of Danskin Peak, but that all depends on the visibility.
"On a good day I can see 110 miles," said Griffin. "I can see the outline of Jabridge Peak to the south, I can start to see the Sawtooths from to the east. Today the visibility is probably somewhere around 30 to 35 miles where I would be able to discern smoke."
Griffin also provides daily weather updates to dispatch and everything that is metal inside the lookout is grounded with wires put in place running from the roof to the ground to guard against lightning strikes.
Griffin tells us he's enjoying his first summer in the lookout, but he also has four weeks of supplies because it's a pain to get up to the lookout and this one is one of the easier ones to access.
"It takes over three hours to get to Boise," said Griffin. "There and back is a full day.”
