BOISE, Idaho — It was a very busy Monday at Lucky Peak Reservoir, and it had nothing to do with boaters and fishermen, but more about scooping and dropping in as firefighters continued the fight against the Valley Fire.
- The Bureau of Land Management is coordinating efforts on the Valley Fire.
- Planes and helicopters are getting a lot of water on the fire.
- A crew from Nevada will arrive to clean up hotspots.
Related: 9,400+ acre Valley Fire spreading along Hwy 21 in Boise foothills
(The following is a transcription of the full broadcast story.)
Plane after plane, and helicopter after helicopter, the BLM is busy coordinating clean-up efforts on the Valley Fire that broke out on Friday. Most of the activity can be seen from Highway 21 north of the reservoir. Chad Cline from the BLM explained, "The fire crews have been doing good work scooping water that can make for quick turnarounds so they're getting a lot of water on this."
So, now that the fire is over 50 percent contained, a transition team will arrive from Nevada, to clean up the remaining hotspots.
"We have a Nevada type three team coming in to take over this fire so we can get our local resources back because we have the local knowledge to manage our area and with no rain in the forecast it will help our folks get reset and ready for any other fires that may occur," Cline added.
I asked Chad Cline with the BLM about what they can do to prevent erosion and possible mudslides that may occur during the winter months.
"During the rehab portion when the fire is mostly out, they'll do rehab on the fires lines by knock down the berms and put in water lines, when it rains or snows it will divert the water then in spring, they'll reseed but it depends on the tactics they want to use."
One more important reminder. Over the weekend there were unauthorized drones flying in the fire zone. It is not only illegal to do so, but you can face severe penalties.
