Boise Firefighters use back-burning to protect homes from the Valley Fire

Boise Firefighters fought fire with fire while using back-burning to protect homes from the Valley Fire in the Boise Foothills. The tactic is used to reduce unburned fuels close to homes.

• The Valley Fire has burned roughly 10,000 acres of the Boise Foothills.
• Back-burning is a tactic used by firefighters where they purposely light a fire of their own, where the main fire they are fighting hasn't burned yet, with the goal of reducing un-burned fuels in that area.
• The BLM is still fighting the Valley Fire up Highway 21 near Robie Creek.

( Below is the transcript from the broadcast story)

“We’ve watched more than one fire close by and nothing has ever come literally to our doorstep," says Martha Timberlake, who lives in Harris North.

She tells me the Valley Fire got too close for comfort to her neighborhood.

“It was unbelievable. It's the kind of thing when you have a home this close to the foothills you think to yourself, you know, this is a real possibility, do I want to risk it living here," says Timberlake.

She tells me she initially spotted the fire from her balcony and later watched it burn across the ridge line.

“It was really frightening watching it move across the foothills so quickly and realizing we were in the path," added Timberlake.

“Our incident commander that was up there, along with our firefighting crews faced a pretty tenuous situation with shifting winds," says Mark Niemeyer, the Fire Chief for the Boise Fire Department.

He says the Valley Fire was threatening homes in the Foothills.

“When we have fire moving towards a threatened area, homes, businesses, etc. If it makes sense and we can do it safely, and we did on this operation, we will light a fire where it’s not burned yet. We have crews that are specially trained. We light that fire purposely to then burn in towards the other fire and that way we keep those homes protected. It’s a very good tactic to use,” Niemeyer explained.

He tells me these back-burning operations are an important tactic for reducing fuels close to homes.

As for Martha, after evacuating, she saw this video posted on Boise Fire's social media of them doing a backburn right in front of her house.

“Well, they were tremendous professionals and I just had complete trust in their techniques. So when I saw it after the whole thing was said and done like I say, I was relieved to have them here and working away," says Timberlake.

“Those burn operations we just talked about, those were so successful that we kept those communities safe," says Niemeyer.