Idaho Gov. Brad Little says human safety is his top priority as large wildfires continue to spread

Idaho Gov. Brad Little and state officials hold a press conference on Aug. 23, 2024, to roll out a new report that recommends the 10 priorities to reduce the impacts of wildfire in 2024 and 2025. (Courtesy of the Idaho Governor's Office)

Idaho Gov. Brad Little said his No. 1 focus is on the safety of civilians and firefighters in the face of what he described as the highest priority wildfire in the country.

The Wapiti Fire burning near Stanley and Grandjean in the Boise and Sawtooth National Forest surpassed 89,000 acres burned on Thursday, with containment still estimated at 0%, fire officials said .

The size of the wildfire increased by nearly 20,000 acres over the previous two days. On Tuesday, the Wapiti Fire had been listed at a little over 70,000 acres .

“Stanley’s the No. 1 fire in the nation right now,” Little said in an interview Wednesday at the Idaho State Capitol in Boise.

“When I’m doing fire, it’s always human health and safety (that are my top priorities),” Little added. “People stay safe. And then it’s property.”

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The Wapiti Fire isn’t the only large wildfire in Idaho. On Thursday, the Boise-based National Interagency Fire Center reported there were 15 large wildfires in Idaho, which have burned more than 209,000 acres.

This summer, Little participated in aerial tours of Gwen Fire and Texas Fire that burned near Lapwai and Kendrick in July and visited the Paddock Fire that burned near Emmett, where Little lives and his family owns land.

On Aug. 23, Little and other state officials revealed a new report outlining 10 recommendations to prioritize in 2024 and 2025 on how to reduce the impact of wildfires – some of which would require new legislation, according to previous Idaho Capital Sun reporting.

Some recommendations include:

• adopting legislation for wildfire liability standards for electric utilities
• developing a statewide mobile notification and evacuation plan
• coordinating wildfire detection cameras
• expanding Idaho’s fire information website that interacts with those detection cameras

The full list of recommendations outlined in the report can be found online .

Little told the Idaho Capital Sun he receives wildfire briefings multiple times a day and is monitoring the Wapiti Fire closely.

“I look at that fire every morning,” Little said. “I look at all the fires around where there’s people – Stanley, Warm Lake, Horesethief. Obviously I did earlier, in those other areas, these other fires burning, as well.”

When asked by the Sun, Little said he is reluctant to make an official, public visit to Staney or the Wapiti Fire because he doesn’t want his presence to create a media circus, distract firefighters and emergency responders or get in people’s way.

“I try, I really diligently try, not to be disruptive when they’re working on the fires,” Little said.

So far this year, 11 Idaho counties and the Nez Perce Tribe have issued wildfire emergency declarations

Little issued emergency declarations for Nez Perce and Lewis counties in connection with the Gwen and Texas fires. But he told the Sun on Wednesday he has not issued a specific emergency declaration for Custer County regarding the Wapiti Fire because county officials have not requested one. If county officials ask for his help, Little said he is ready to offer assistance.

“They haven’t formally asked,” Little said. “We are very cognizant of what’s going on up there, but they haven’t formally asked. I think what happened in Nez Perce or Lewis County is they just didn’t have funding for the sheriff to do traffic control and so that definitely qualifies for state emergency funding.”

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Custer County commissioners issued a local disaster declaration Aug. 20, but have not requested to be part of the state disaster declaration, said Idaho Office of Emergency Management public affairs officer Tristan Lewis.

So far in 2024, Blaine, Boise, Custer, Elmore, Gem, Latah, Lemhi, Nez Perce, Payette, Valley and Washington counties and the Nez Perce Tribe have issued disaster declarations due to wildfires, Lewis said.

“Disaster declarations can play a crucial role in mobilizing state and federal resources to communities impacted by wildfires, although it is important to note that generally resources are ordered and provided by land management agencies such as the Idaho Department of Lands or the U.S. Forest Service,” Lewis said in an email to the Sun. “When fires impact communities and there are resources that cannot be provided by wildland agencies, disaster declarations at the local, state and federal levels can assist in opening options for the unmet needs.”

The location of a wildfire helps determine who responds to the fire in Idaho

In Idaho, the location of a fire plays a role in who responds to fight the fire. Across Idaho, local rural fire protection agencies, local fire departments, the Idaho Department of Lands and the federal government all play roles in fighting fires.

An interagency agreement called the Idaho Master Cooperative Wildland Fire Management and Stafford Act Agreement between the Idaho Department of Lands, the Department of Interior and the U.S. Forest Service allows those agencies to work together, said Idaho Department of Lands Fire Bureau Chief Josh Harvey.

“Really what it does is authorizes federal agencies and states to work together and exchange funds,” Harvey said in a phone interview Thursday. “And so by allowing us to exchange funds that really allows us to share resources to help each other out with wildfires, regardless of whose jurisdiction that is.”

Harvey said there are several tiers of coordination, starting at the highest level with the National Wildfire Coordinating Group, going down to smaller regional coordinating groups and finally dispatch zones.

“At the dispatch level, that leadership works together within the zone to plan responses, response areas and work together when we have multiple fires, like complex fires on landscape,” Harvey said. “They all work together to prioritize.

“Idaho has a pretty robust wildfire response,” Harvey added.

Still, there are challenges and resources are stretched thin, Harvey said.

“There are definitely not the same number of firefighting resources in the system that there used to be,” said Harvey, who has fought fires all across the United States and up into Alaska since 1998. “That trend is continuing to go down. Incident management teams, there are less of those in the system, which puts more strain on individual states to take on large complex fires on their own for longer periods of time.”

Although he is realistic about the challenges, Harvey said he is encouraged by the slate of new wildfire report recommendations.

“As a fire manager responsible for protecting Idaho resources and the public, I really appreciate the effort the governor has put into this roundtable report.”

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