WPOFD battles structure fires

PRIEST RIVER — A busy day during the burning season is nothing new for the West Pend Oreille Fire Department, but two separate blazes left firefighters scrambling to battle structure fires around the Priest River area early Monday afternoon.

Winds would play a factor in the latter structure fire, which started as a prescribed field burn but got out of control and fully engulfed a late 1970s-style single-wide trailer.

Firefighters received the call around 2 p.m. and spent the next several hours containing the flames at the Eastriver Road residence.

The trailer, which had no one living in it at the time, was described as a complete loss and several acres of field were also scorched.

Proof no good deed goes unpunished, the property owner had been helping a neighbor by burning the hay field near her property line before extinguishing the flames and moving on to other activities.

After a short period of time the property owner returned to double-check that the flames were completely doused when he noticed his “whole field on fire” just 40-50 yards away from the trailer.

“I had put it out, but the winds must have shifted and started it up again,” said property owner Tony Lamanna, adding he, “tried to beat it out with a shovel and hose but it hit the trailer’s tar paper and took off.”

Lammana, a member of the West Bonner County School Board and former sheriff of the Spirit Lake Police Department, used his police training and during a time when most would have ran away — ran in to help save a friend’s heirlooms.

Despite billowing black smoke and heat felt from more than 50 feet away — Lamanna made three separate trips inside the structure and saved a family friend’s priceless keepsakes that belonged to their daughter who had passed away.

Lamanna did not require medical attention but did suffer from burns and smoke inhalation after his actions.

“You just do it. You’re always scared, but still do what has to be done,” Lamanna said.

“Those were things that meant everything to someone and the only things they have left of a loved one.”

“I just couldn’t do it (not go in). It’s not in me,” he added.

Lamanna also expressed his deep gratitude to the WPOFD and the Bonner County Sheriff’s Office for their role in extinguishing and containing the fire.

“I was tickled with the fire department and county. Those are some good guys,” he said.

Firefighters were wrapping-up another structure fire at Willow Bay Road outside Priest River when they received the second call.

Full details other than the fact the investigation is ongoing were unavailable at press time.