Region could set a record on fire suppression

COEUR d’ALENE — North Idaho may set fire-suppression records this year, with firefighters already dropping 860,000 gallons of retardant on wildfires.

According to Jason Kirchner, a spokesman for the Idaho Panhandle National Forest, the annual average for the past 10 years has been 150,000 gallons. That amount was exceeded in June alone. The total thus far is only 120,000 gallons of fire retardant short of the record set in 1967.

“We have never dropped over a million gallons in one year,” Kirchner said. “This year might be that year.”

Currently every available firefighter in North Idaho is working to attack an estimated 35 small lightning-sparked wildfires burning throughout the Idaho Panhandle.

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