Federal forecasters are predicting unseasonably high temperatures this summer. Local Wildland firefighters are preparing for a hotter, drier and potentially longer fire season.
Last year, about nine million acres of land burned across the U.S.. Speaking at the City Council meeting on Tuesday, Boise Fire Wildfire Captain Garrett Kirpach said 1.2 million acres burned in the Great Basin area, between Idaho, Utah, Nevada and Western Idaho.
“Half of that was here locally in southern Idaho. So between the Payette, the Boise and the Boise BLM, we burned about 600,000 acres,” he said. “So it felt like the whole area was on fire most of the summer. And that's because it, for the most part, was.”
Kirpach says his team is expecting more of the same in the coming months. He says because the Treasure Valley didn’t get a lot of snow this winter, there is a lot of fuel.
“The snowpack is really what kind of compresses that old grass and sets us up to have less grass for next year, because we didn't get much snow down here in the valley. Most of last year's grass is still standing up tall, and now we've grown a bunch of new grass from that wet winter,” Kirpach explained, adding population growth is also a factor.
“We're getting bigger and busier here around the city. We tend to get more human starts than we used to. But then we also have a decent chance for lightning this year,” he said.
The Boise Fire Department currently has seven brush rigs located on the outer ring of the city, and is expecting an eigth one in November.
