Firefighters save north Pocatello neighborhood from fast-moving brush fire

POCATELLO — The city’s top firefighter couldn’t be more happy with the work of his firefighters to save a north Pocatello neighborhood from potential destruction on Thursday night when a brush fire ignited and burned to within 100 feet of several homes.

“I’m very proud of all the responders — the firefighters, police and 911 dispatchers,” Pocatello Fire Chief Ryan O’Hearn said following Thursday night’s brush fire in the Hiline Road area near the Ridley’s supermarket. “Everyone did an incredible job of protecting the city.”

The fire burning on the hillside between Hiline Road and Holman Avenue was reported by local residents around 9:50 p.m. and authorities said it was presumably caused by fireworks.

At the time, the Pocatello Fire Department was extinguishing much smaller fireworks-caused brush fires on University and Via Caporatti drives.

O’Hearn himself was patrolling the city’s west bench when he heard the report about the brush fire in the Hiline area. He knew when he looked across the valley and could see the flames that the blaze had the potential to be destructive.

The entire Pocatello Fire Department was immediately dispatched to the Hiline Road area, where the fast-moving brush fire was approaching homes on Holman Avenue.

Numerous Pocatello police officers also responded to the neighborhood and began evacuating the homes on Holman. Police also shut down several streets in the Hiline and Holman area to keep the public a safe distance away.

Fortunately, the evacuation was temporary as the massive response by the Fire Department contained the blaze to the hillside where it was soon extinguished.

In the end there were no injuries and no damage to structures. The last firefighters and police left the scene around 11:30 p.m. to respond to a small fireworks-caused fire nearby in the area of Parks and Marinus lanes. That blaze didn’t result in any injuries but did scorch the fence of a home before being extinguished.

O’Hearn said the Fire Department spent most of Thursday night and early Friday morning responding to small fireworks-caused fires throughout Pocatello.

He said the night of July 4 is one of the most stressful of the year for Pocatello firefighters. Normally the Pocatello Fire Department’s firefighters remain at their fire stations until they are dispatched to calls. But on the night of July 4, none of the Fire Department’s personnel are at their stations. Rather, they’re patrolling the city to deter the use of illegal fireworks and to look for fireworks-caused fires so that they can respond to such incidents even before residents can call 911 for help.

O’Hearn said the secret of the Fire Department’s success in protecting Pocatello homes from the fire threat is “hard work by all the responders” and being able to get the necessary emergency resources to a fire quickly before it can ruin anyone’s Fourth of July.

Thursday night’s blaze in the Hiline Road area definitely came close to being a catastrophe for one local neighborhood.

Thanks to the city’s emergency responders that worst-case scenario was averted.