On 7/29, while touring around in our Toad, Sandy and I spotted some smoke just North of the city of Priest River, Idaho. Priest River is 19 miles North of our campground. Turns out it started only 45 minutes before we noticed it. The fire response team already had 3 single engine, Double pilot, Fire Boss float planes that pickup up to 800 gallons of water via scoops in their floats by dipping the floats into the local river, filling up, then fly single file up to the fire, drop their water, then repeat the process. They are amazing to watch. It looked to me that they would soon have it under control.
The fire has been named the “Pioneer Fire”.
Three days later (today 8/1), the fire has burned 359 Acres. Our campground is socked in with smoke. (Thank goodness Sandy had purchased a small smoke eating machine for the COW in anticipation of Western Wild Fires that has done a good job of keeping the inside of the COW smoke free.)
This fire as well as many other current wild fires have spewed smoke into the air through most of Washington, Idaho, Oregon, California, Minnesota, and Wyoming.
The good news is that we just heard that the Pioneer fire is 50% controlled as of 5:00 PM today 8/1.
Attached is a picture of the initial start of the fire:
Attached are pictures of the smoke currently surrounding our campground. The surrounding hills are covered in smoke. Normally we would be able to clearly see the surrounding hills.
Hi guys! Your right where the action is. It's good to know that they have the equipment like the fire bloss float planes that can handle fires. And I tell ya Sandy is always thinkin, great purchase that smoke eating machine Stay safe out there. 😊
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