NAMPA, Idaho — The Idaho Department of Lands and local fire departments are communicating when additional wildfire assistance is needed. Fire departments are being reimbursed for helping the state fight wildfires and also for helping maintain certifications for wildfires.

• According to NIFC, $3,166,300,000 was spent to suppress wildfires in 2023.
• Neighbor Helping Neighbor Idaho Fire Chiefs offer free 24-hour assistance to nearby fire departments.

(Below you can find the transcript of the broadcast story)

This year’s wildfire season is almost over. The Idaho Department of Lands reports that approximately 350 fires occurred in more than 65,000 acres protected by IDL in 2024. There are many resources you can use without needing extra help.
Local fire departments may be dispatched to assist through the National Interagency Fire Center.

“Say there’s a fire in Payette County,” Nampa Fire Protection District Chief Kirk Carpenter said, “the Payette County Sheriff can call the police and say, ‘Hey, we’ve got a fire, I need some resources.’

Once the shipment arrives, it’s a linear process from asking questions to a well-known department at a time to prioritizing communication.

“The communication style now is more of a horizontal structure of who’s available and it’s convening at one point and then reporting back and then everyone can say, this is what we have,” Carpenter explains. explains Carpenter.

Resources are not only equipment and equipment, but also people. There are many certifications for firefighters; wild land is one of them. Responding to fires helps personnel maintain their certification.

“Is there an option to not send any equipment and only have the tool sent by the individual?” I ask.

“It’s a great question. It’s the same now,” says Carpenter, “I think in the past, just when we talked historically in Nampa, if you go back further, there was always a distinction between wildland firefighters and structural firefighters.”

Shipping equipment is expensive, and departments are reimbursed for the time and resources spent. Idaho Fire Chiefs have a response plan that includes providing 24-hour free assistance to their neighbors in Idaho. Neighbor helping neighbor, preventing fires from getting even more out of control than they already are, and protecting local rural economies.

“If you think about Stanley in general, if the impact of that fire had been greater than that, Labor Day weekend in Stanley would have been the biggest revenue generator for that community,” Carpenter says.