SANDPOINT — A severe thunderstorm swept through Bonner County on Thursday evening, leaving downed trees, fires and power outages in its wake.

The storm system brought heavy rain and countless lightning strikes to the inland Northwest, leaving as many as 17,000 customers without power, according to Northern Lights and Avista officials. One lightning strike hit an apartment building in Sandpoint in the 1600 block of Pine Street, igniting a fire inside the walls of an apartment, Sandpoint’s Fire Chief Gavin Gilcrease said. 

“It just looked like a normal, normal night with lightning going off, but it was inside the wall,” Gilcrease said. “They were able to get it exposed and get it extinguished, and from that point, it was just making sure that it hadn't extended anywhere else. It did affect the first, the original apartment, and the one that abuts it on the side, and then also the two that were directly above it.” 

Contrary to reports, there was no fire at the 100 block of North Lincoln at the Avista substation, Gilcrease said. 

Selkirk Fire Rescue and EMS and Northside Fire District were also a part of the response to the apartment fire. Fire Chief Jeff Armstrong said the storm presented challenges and that it overwhelmed their available resources immediately. 

“It took several hours for our crews to handle all the pending incidents. We activated our callback system and brought back off-duty personnel,” Armstrong said in a written statement sent to the Daily Bee. “We are grateful for our mutual aid relationships. Activations like this further reinforce the need for all districts to work as one.” 

Both Armstrong and Gilcrease credited the crews on the scene for their effort during the storm, especially at the apartment complex fire. Both said they were proud of their teams’ effort, which Gilcrease said saved the apartments. 

“As I was coming into town, I was honestly expecting to see the orange glow, like the apartments just on fire,” Gilcrease said. “And there was, there was literally nothing, the speed and efficiency at how they do their job, it's just impressive.” 

Bonner Dispatch was inundated with calls Thursday night as high winds brought down numerous trees, branches, and power lines throughout the county, said Cameron La Combe of Bonner County Emergency Management.

In addition to responding to the fire, Gilcrease said fire crews were dealing with downed trees and power lines, and vehicle accidents throughout the night. With a majority of the storm subsided, Gilcrease said that the region’s fire departments will move into monitoring mode, in addition to their usual duties.  

Power has mostly been restored to Avista customers, with only 11 outages and 175 customers affected at the time of publishing. Northern Lights continues to have large outages, primarily around Priest Lake and Bonners Ferry, with over 3,300 remaining without power at the time of publication. 

One of the concerns following high-electricity storms is the potential for a strike to smolder for several days before starting a fire in rural areas, Gilcrease said. For those reports, Gilcrease said the departments rely on people to call in smoke plumes as well as cameras across Bonner County, which can identify and pinpoint them. 

"With storms like this, especially on the electrical side of it, there was a lot of lightning going on last night, more so than I've seen here,” Gilcrease said. “More so than the captain that's on duty, he was saying the same thing, never seen anything like that, as far as the amount of lightning strikes in that storm last night.” 

La Combe also noted several reports of small brush fires; however, he added that none appeared to pose a significant threat or grow large enough to require extensive resources.

"As residents have more time over the weekend to inspect their properties, additional reports of storm-related damage may be received," La Combe said. "Emergency Management will continue to monitor conditions and coordinate with local partners as needed."

Gilcrease said that safety should be the priority for residents moving forward. He warned to use caution if using electrical equipment when cleaning up downed trees or branches, and to check the weather app and wind before starting a potential burn pile. 

The National Weather Service does have a general risk of continued thunderstorms in North Idaho until Saturday, but not to the severe level of Thursday’s storm. Residents can stay on top of predictions from the NWS by visiting weather.gov/otx/ or following the Spokane office on social media.