Familiar faces with new titles were seen at the monthly Local Emergency Planning Committee meeting on July 12. Donna Richter has been named the new assistant fire chief. She is joining current Superior Fire Department Chief Steve Temple. Temple took over as fire chief from Rob Torrey earlier this year after Torrey stepped down from the position.

Also, Mary Jo Lommen has been named the new county fire warden. She took over the position from long-time warden Roger Hearst. Lommen recently retired from the U.S. Forest Service and has past firefighting experience.

Two 2018 casualties

During the meeting, Tony Bacino, with Montana Rail Link, mentioned two casualties the company suffered so far this year. One was Dawn Humphrey, 57, of Missoula who was struck and killed by a train south of Arlee on July 5. Bacino said among other things, she was wearing earbuds with the music cranked up, which prevented her from hearing the oncoming train.

The other incident occurred on June 10 when Robert Kalanick, 26, was hit and killed by a train in Missoula. “It’s unfortunate but we usually get a couple (casualties) a year,” Bacino said. He also said that more people are getting out now that the weather is nice, and wants to get the word out about railroad safety and warn people to stay off the tracks.

Committee Chairman and St. Regis Fire Chief Jerry Dockter reported about an incident which took place two weeks ago. A semi-truck was pulling 40- and 20-foot trailer on Interstate 90 when the 20-foot pup caught on fire.

Upon arrival to the scene, the driver had disconnected the trailers from his truck and reported that he was carrying paper products. The three-man fire-fighting crew opened up the trailer and began dousing it with water when Dockter discovered through the driver’s paperwork, that there were five containers of acid inside, including sulfuric acid.

Luckily, they were wearing the appropriate gear; however, breathing in toxic fumes is unhealthy and it quickly turned into an “incident” rather than a fire. After two hours they were able to contact the truck company and learned there was 400 pounds of acids onboard, which is under the 1,000-pound limit for special handling requirements.

It was also noted that UPS and Federal Express reports that on average they carry 10 percent hazardous material. Generally, those materials are carried in the rear five feet of the trailer. This is good information for emergency responders if they are called on the scene of an accident involving those carriers.

Human fire starts

Six human fire starts were reported by Jim Ward with the Forest Service. All were extinguished quickly with little incident, and mostly as a result of July 4 activities. However, he said they are now in high fire danger with things drying out.

A lot of their resources have been sent out to fight fires especially in Arizona, Utah and New Mexico. However, those resources are beginning to return here and they have 12 incident teams available. “We can staff fires if they occur here,” Ward said.

Also, all open burning is cancelled until next fall and no permits are available. Only campfires are being allowed at this time.

Frenchtown Rural Fire Department Chief Joe Calahan said last week there was a small two-acre fire near Huson as the result of a smoldering burn pile from the previous weekend. The embers had smoldered for a couple of days when the winds kicked up and reignited the flames. The burn pile had been located in the middle of a big gravel driveway near a home. No property was damaged and there were no injuries reported.

Other members of the committee reported their latest activities, including County Commissioner Laurie Johnston; St. Regis Assistant Fire Chief Kat Kittridge; DES Coordinator Lori Dove; Superior Fire Chief Steve Temple; Monte Turner with the Mineral Community Hospital Emergency Preparedness team; and Anita Parking with the Superior ambulance crew, who said they were currently looking for more volunteers.

Candis Hampton with the office of Environmental Health and Planning also reported that the Mineral County Community Wildfire Protection Plan is completed and will be posted online soon.

The next LEPC meeting will be held on Aug. 9, a week later than usual because the Mineral County Fair will be held during their normally scheduled meeting time.