Emergencies keep local agency busy

Five incidents required the assistance of the Boundary County Emergency Service crews this past two weeks.

Perhaps the most serious incident reported was that of explosive material being placed in a mail box on Westside Road. This incident is still under investigation.

The matter is not only a criminal offense, but it also is a federal offense. Details are not being released at this time as there were several strange clues at the scene that could only be known by individuals involved.

"The scene was very strange and is still under investigation, and this is a very serious offense and could have several serious charges, " said Bob Graham, Boundary County Emergency Services incident commander.

Graham reported that on June 28 suspicious material was found on the turnout at the Copeland junction.

The material was not identified and the Idaho transportation Department helped with the clean up.

Graham said this incident is still under investigation.

"We have no way finding out when or how it got there," said Graham.

Then on July 29, Graham said someone dumped some explosive material at Boundary County Landfill.

"It was electric dynamite caps, and we had to have the Spokane Bomb Squad come up to destroy them," said Graham.

The caps were taken to an undisclosed location and detonated.

A few days later more suspicious material was found on private forest land.

This time, the North Idaho Hazardous Materials team from Coeur d' Alene Homeland Security was brought in.

"Before we called them we ran three separate tests ourselves," Graham said.

Graham said the first test they ran was to see if the substance was methamphetamine or not; it was not.

It was not flammable and did not react with water.

Homeland Security was then called and asked to bring their hazardous material trained employees and a lab.

"We consulted with the interested entities both state and federal and it was determined the material was only hazardous if ingested in large amounts," Graham said.

The material turned out to be sodium phosphate and potassium phosphate.

It took three days to get the mess cleaned up and the details of how it got there or who may have put it there is still under investigation.

The most recent incident was Friday when a concrete truck carrying 60,000 pounds of cement caused the collapse of a bridge the driver was attempting to cross.

The bridge was located off of Highway 95 and mile post 532 on to GIllan Creek Road.

The concrete truck ended up in Round Prairie Creek and took most of the day to retrieve.

According to Graham, the people who purchased the concrete told the driver the bridge was safe and in good shape when obviously it was not.

"We called to have the concrete pumped out but since it had set in the creek for more than an hour the concrete had already set," said Graham.

"The concrete people said when the concrete isn't agitated it doesn't take long to thicken up."

Graham said Clyde's towing was able to cut the concrete container with a torch and released it from the truck. Then they removed the container and the truck separately and hauled them off.

Boundary County Sheriff Department, Boundary County Volunteer ambulance, Hall Mountain Fire, Boundary County Emergency services and Idaho State Police were on scene while Clyde's towing removed the wreckage.

"It took us all day from when the incident happened around 8 a.m. until after supper time to get it all cleaned up," said Graham.

"It took a lot of personnel as well."

Graham said the bridge is no longer there and it has not yet been determined who is responsible for rebuilding it.

"It is partially on highway right of way but exactly who's bridge it is has not been determined," Graham said.