North Idaho Supplying Gear To Fight Valley View Fire
COEUR D’ALENE — While fire crews from across Washington have battled the Valley View Fire many of the supplies they used came from across the stateline in North Idaho.
With $6 Million in inventory, the Coeur d’Alene Interagency Fire Cache has everything to help crews battle a major wildfire. When firefighters on the Valley fire needed chainsaws staff at the fire cache got them the supplies they needed right away.
Within 24 hours of the Valley View Fire the cache staff delivered $35,000 worth of supplies to the fire lines, which included goggles, pumps, axes, gasoline and water tanks, headlamps, earplugs and rope.
They’ve made two deliveries since Friday and could make one more before the fire is contained.
The Coeur d’Alene Interagency Fire Cache is the largest local cache in the country and the Valley View Fire is the largest that the cache has provided supplies to so far this year.
“It’s very convenient for firefighters to have that large amount of supplies available to them especially so close to where they are working,” Assistant Cache Manager Randy Thomas said.
The cache also helps supply gear for wildfires in Montana and south as far south as California.
Once the Valley View Fire is completely contained the equipment will be returned to the cache where the staff will repair and clean the supplies for the next wildfire.
