The Valley Fire, which burned nearly 10,000 acres in the Boise Foothills, is now 90% contained as repair efforts begin to ramp up.
The Idaho Department of Lands said this week that Idaho Power was responsible for the fire, which resulted from a live line from a downed utility pole causing several ignitions.
The fire threatened homes in Barber Valley during the first day after the fire was reported on Friday, Oct. 4, but did not burn any buildings, according to officials. The area has been at 9,904 hectares for more than a week, with the most active portion remaining in the northeast of the fire, closest to the Robie Creek community, the Department of Lands said in a news release Friday.
Robie Creek was lifted from evacuation status as of Wednesday, October 16.
Idaho Power noted in a news release Monday that the utility pole involved in the fire had been inspected three times this year with no problems noted. The Department of Lands found no evidence of rot or contamination, the Idaho Statesman previously reported.
Two weeks after the fire started, crews are nearing full control. And as the risk of fire spreading decreases, especially with recent low temperatures, a Nevada incident management team personnel is focusing on repair and suppression efforts.
The team is responsible for repairing damage caused by firefighting. Robbie Johnson, a public information officer for IDL, said some of this work will become more visible in the coming days as crews work to repair damage to the landscape, including a 53-mile bulldozer line that can be seen from the foothills .
“They will use excavators. … They move the dirt and sometimes they create a berm or roughen the ground. And they will also do things about erosion,” Johnson told the Statesman, referring to work around the bulldozer line.
Once the repair work is completed, seeds are planted over the area.
Johnson told the Statesman that the estimated cost of the fire is already more than $4 million — almost $300,000 a day, she said.
Some of these costs will decrease as personnel and resources become available. For now, 206 individuals continue to work toward containment, suppression and recovery, she said, even as the fight is almost over.
Johnson said a helicopter was released from the battle on Friday, which will also reduce costs, and that the Nevada incident management team will leave on Monday.
Then the long-term effects of the fire fall on a number of local agencies, who met with the incident management team last Friday.
“It was great to see everyone come together,” Johnson said of the collaborative meeting.
She said dealing with long-term effects such as erosion is “a bit of uncharted territory” for local agencies, including Idaho Fish and Game, which manages the Boise River Wildlife Management Area, a 36,000-acre protected area that was hit hard by the fire. .
Johnson also reminded the public to respect road and trail closures, including on Homestead Trail at Council Springs Road.
“There’s a lot of activity that you don’t see because it’s behind the hills,” Johnson said.
Roads and trails remain closed on the Boise Front segment of the Boise River WMA west of Idaho 21 and north of Warm Springs Avenue, according to an update from the Department of Lands.
