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Looking back on the Oregon Trail fire ahead of wildfire season

Those who fought the Oregon Trail fire said it was the worst they have ever, and hopefully, will ever see.

BOISE, Idaho — As part of Fire Awareness Week at KTVB, the team is looking back at major fires that have affected the Treasure Valley over the last several decades. 

We're looking back on how they started, the damage they caused and what we learned from them to be better prepared for the next big one.

Oregon Trail Fire- 2008

Those who fought the Oregon Trail fire said it was the worst they have ever, and hopefully, will ever see.

Former KTVB reporter Kaycee Murray reported on the fire as it spread through the Boise area.

"The hot and fast electricity created a strong current traveling through powerlines from Boise Avenue to Amity Road before reaching a piece of equipment called a connector on a power pole," she said during a broadcast. "Investigators say that connector became so hot that it started to melt, causing molten metal to fall to the dry grass igniting what would become one of Boise's all-time biggest fires."

Dennis Doan had been elevated to Chief of Boise Fire six months before the Oregon Trail fire, which burned in southeast Boise in August 2008. It was his first major fire in command. It would be the largest and most devastating fire in his 30-year career.

"We had firefighters laying in the streets because the wind-driven fire was going over the street and lighting fires, lighting houses on fire across the street," Doan said. "It was one of the most amazing things I've ever been witness to and been a part of." 

The fire burned down 20 homes and took the life of Boise State University professor Mary Ellen Ryder.

"We stopped it at 20 homes being damaged, but at that time were starting to make preparations for losing that entire neighborhood," Doan said. "We were setting up and getting ready to try to stop it at the end of the neighborhood. That's how close that fire came to taking out the entire subdivision."

What came out of this catastrophic event were major changes to city fire management, including: 

  • Mapping specific geographical areas designated as wildland-urban interface areas
  • Implementing new building codes specific to those areas protections built in to prevent fires from jumping from house to house.
  • Requiring defensible landscaping around houses in those areas 

"I was pretty proud of passing that and had then-Mayor Bieter's support to do that," Doan said. "We even had the contractors. This added a little expense, but they understood and they're part of our community and they supported it also. We had very little pushback on that after that fire." 

Chief Doan is now the chief of the Gig Harbor Fire Dept. outside Seattle, Wash. He said another major fire in the Boise valley is not a matter of if, but a matter of when.

However, Doan said the steps taken following the Oregon Trail fire and the lessons learned will go a long way in preventing the scope of the damage seen 13 years ago from happening again.

Be sure to tune into Wake Up Idaho every morning this week for more information on wildfires. 

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