S. Boundary braves snow, ice at fires

BONNERS FERRY — Firefighters and equipment were challenged by winter weather conditions as the South Boundary Fire Department responded to a pair of recent house fires. Just before the new year (on the coldest day of the year), SBFD responded to a fire in a manufactured home outside Naples. Quick response had the fire department there within 12 minutes of the call.

Crews quickly went to work on the blaze, which centered in the attic, and were able to limit damage to the house.

“We’ve been drilling on water to the door in two minutes,” said South Boundary Chief Tony Rohrwasser. “We had attack lines set up and we were in there quickly.”

The cold froze fittings on South Boundary’s water tender, but they were able to fix it with parts from the Naples store.

Rohrwasser says training and a very capable crew of around 25 firefighters have helped limit a number of fires in South Boundary’s district in the last few years to one-room incidents. Three subdistricts with their own stations help with the quick response, he says.

Training and preparedness couldn’t help South Boundary’s firefighters as they responded to the most recent fire in the middle of a snowstorm on Jan. 5. Valley View Elementary employee Randa Portrey was asleep when she awoke to a room full of smoke.

“I don’t know if it was the smoke detectors or the smoke itself that woke me,” she said. “The alarm didn’t really register until I realized there was smoke.”

Portrey opened her door and was engulfed in smoke, so she quickly shut the door and called 911. Dispatcher Brad Stalcup helped keep Portrey calm, directing her to open a window for fresh air. He stayed on the line with her until help arrived.

Assistant Fire Chief Wayne Wilkerson was the first on scene, breaking a window to help Portrey get out of the house.

“Only Wayne and myself can go straight to a scene,” says Rohrwasser. Both chiefs have breathing apparatus in their command vehicles. All other firefighters are required to respond to the station for gear before responding, Rohrwasser says. Heavy snowfall had blocked roads, so response was hampered despite chains on all four corners of the fire trucks, Rohrwasser said.

“Nothing was plowed - the highway or county roads,” he said. Some firefighters called from Paradise Valley for mutual aid couldn’t even get their own vehicles out of driveways to respond.

South Boundary sent two fire trucks and a water tender to the scene, and saved what they could, pulling a vehicle away from the building and removing medication and guns from the house.

The weather and the dark lead to a dangerous combination that kept firefighters busy through the night, and forcing them to return after daybreak to finish their work. The department wasn’t clear of the scene until 11:29 the next day.

“I feel bad for the volunteers,” says Rohrwasser. “They worked all night, and still had to go to work the next day. With the snow and the other conditions, everyone was working hard.”