Baumgartner’s take on Spokane fires misguided

GUEST OPINION

Congressman Baumgartner’s guest opinion should have been titled, “I can’t see the forest for the trees.” I recently rode my bike up Trails Road to Indian Bluff Road in Spokane County.

It was a mile of dead end road that bordered the top of the ridge on the East side of the Spokane River where some very expensive view homes were destroyed. This county road had no fire hydrants, so how do they put out a fire without water? Those homes were built without fire protection as a public consideration.

Baumgartner confuses forest fires with urban interface wildfires. The main fuel burning in Spokane was vehicles and homes. The trees spread the fire to the homes in the form of burning embers driven by 45 mph 100 degree winds. People want to live with the trees and have homes within dense wooded areas. Hillsides and ridge lines intensified the spread of the fire and it jumped the river into densely populated urban streets.

Baumgartner wants to thin trees by logging and I doubt that the homeowners want to cut down the trees near their homes. That defeats the point of living in lovely wooded landscapes.

Using a matching grant I spent $3,000 thinning the floor of my wooded property.

Baumgartner’s point of allowing controlled burns without consideration of the smoke health hazards seems as foolish as skipping vaccinations to improve immunity.

Greater Spokane had the Oregon Road and Grey fires three years ago with the same conditions as this summer’s fires. That’s two failures in a row. Next summer we can expect the same unless we seriously consider this urban interface fire hazard. We want our homes to not burn and wouldn’t need to praise our response and caring for the victims if the fires are prevented or stopped before they become too large to fight.

There are many technical fire protection tasks we should undertake before the next fire season and none of them are political. Preventing wildfires is a priority no matter the political party of our congressperson. I don’t want to be a victim calling the congressman’s office for help.