Fire burning near Lenore surges again

A recently ignited wildfire near Lenore rapidly grew to 6,000 acres overnight after residents of the small town were told to immediately evacuate late Wednesday afternoon.

By Thursday evening, fire activity had increased again, burning an additional 2,000 acres. Structural fire departments were brought in to help protect residences overnight. Earlier in the day, seven engines and three helicopters were attacking the blaze.

The Forest Service, Nez Perce tribal fire department and numerous local fire districts also were on the scene at what has been dubbed the Bedrock Fire.

According to Scott Philips, policy and communications chief at the Idaho Department of Lands, a Type 2 incident management team will arrive soon to take over fire suppression efforts.

“They’re going to bring more resources and a lot of experience,” Philips said. “They’ll be bringing a lot of hardware and manpower to the fire.”

Evacuation orders for the area were lifted briefly Thursday afternoon before the fire unexpectedly shifted course, triggering evacuations once again for the community of about 1,000 people.

So far, the number of structures destroyed by the fire is undetermined.

“We’re urging the public to please avoid the area around Lenore,” Philips said. “We need to give the firefighters space to do their work.”

The intersections of Bedrock Road to Lenore Grade on River Road are currently in the GO stage of evacuation, according to Nick Woods, a spokesperson for the Nez Perce County Sheriff’s Office. The rest of Lenore is still in SET.

“The fire has started back up and is changing directions rapidly,” a sheriff’s office notice said. “Please stay out of the area.”

The department is updating the fire status on its Facebook page, and evacuees are welcome to come to the Lenore Community Center along U.S. Highway 12.

Philips asked that people not fly drones in the area, as temporary flight restrictions are currently in place.

“If drones are flying, firefighting aircrafts cannot fly,” he said. “When we can’t have aircrafts in the air, it puts lives and property at risk. It’s very crucial there are no drones.”

The fire is burning mostly on agricultural land in Bedrock Creek Canyon, where winds of 10-15 mph are continuing to push flames toward residences and other structures.

The cause of the Bedrock Fire, first reported around 1 p.m. Wednesday, is still under investigation. It was last estimated at zero percent containment.

The blaze originated 25 miles northeast of Lewiston on the northern boundary of the Nez Perce Reservation, according to Chris Tretter, Ponderosa Supervisory Area manager with the Idaho Department of Lands.

The Idaho Department of Environmental Quality and the Nez Perce Reservation both issued air quality advisories and burn bans Thursday warning of adverse health impacts from breathing wildfire smoke.

Recreational fires are prohibited, and burning permits will not be approved on the reservation until further notice. Burn restrictions are in effect until 10 a.m. Monday on nontribal lands.

Every year during the closed fire season, from May 10 through Oct. 20, individuals looking to burn outside of city limits for agriculture-related purposes must get a fire safety burn permit from the department.

Additional air quality burn permits must be obtained from the tribe for any kind of burning on the reservation, according to Julie Simpson, coordinator for the Nez Perce Tribe Air Quality Program.

On Wednesday, the program issued five air quality burn permits in Lewis County and one in Idaho County. According to Simpson, air quality conditions were good and supported the decision.

“Air quality started out OK up on the Camas Prairie, so initially (we) thought we could permit some agricultural burns,” Simpson said. “When we saw it was quickly getting worse, we canceled all permits for the day.”

The program is constantly tracking local fires, weather patterns and other metrics to determine whether conditions are safe enough to approve burns.

“We track all of that information and come up with a forecast for the day,” Simpson said. “If things change, we can revise our decision accordingly.”

Off the reservation, the Idaho Department of Lands is responsible for issuing crop residue burn permits, which are obtained through the Department of Environmental Quality.

According to Philip Hagihara, air quality manager for the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality’s regional office in Lewiston, farmers in Latah and Nez Perce counties expressed no interest in obtaining a burn permit.

“None of them wanted to burn, because they’re concerned about the high fire risk,” Hagihara said. “They want some rain before they would even think about burning.”

When the department contacted farmers in Idaho County near Grangeville and Cottonwood, he said, some of the larger growers with fire suppression equipment wanted to burn. With the extra precautions in place, burning was permitted on Wednesday.

A few burns near the Camas Prairie were approved early Thursday morning.

“We weren’t expecting the smoke to get here as soon as it did,” Hagihara said. “When we saw the smoke moving in on the prairie, we shut the burns down.”

He and his team analyze satellite images on a daily basis to determine where the smoke is coming from.

The Bedrock Fire rapidly worsened air quality in the region, faster than officials predicted it would. Forecasts of degraded air quality now include Latah, Nez Perce, Lewis, Clearwater and Idaho counties.

“We weren’t expecting that at all,” Hagihara said. “We’re also starting to see some smoke from Canada moving into our region as well. We have winds coming from the north blowing everything south and it leads straight to our area.”

No open burns, agricultural or otherwise, will be permitted in the area until air quality in the region improves.

Air quality is in the “moderate” to “unhealthy” category and is forecasted to remain there. The pollutant of concern is fire particulate matter at PM2.5.

“In general terms, when air quality deteriorates severely it becomes difficult, if not impossible, to fly aircrafts,” Philips said.

Other local fire activity includes:

The Dixie-Jumbo Fire located 15 miles south of Elk City has reached 60 percent containment at around 43,230 total acres.

The Cougar Rock Complex 30 miles northeast of Orofino is at 8,353 acres and 42 percent containment.

The Granite Pass Complex located near Lolo on two national forests is at 5,758 acres and 15 percent containment.

Palermo may be contacted at apalermo@lmtribune.com. Follow her on Twitter @apalermotweets.