Few will ever forget the devastation of last summer's Soda Fire in Southwest Idaho. The fire tore through hundreds of thousands of acres - mostly Bureau of Land Management space where local ranchers grazed their cattle. "It's helpless," Owyhee Rangelands Fire Protection Association (RFPA) Vice Chairman Todd Gluch said.
Rural Idahoans are coming together - developing a plan - to help stop small fires from becoming big ones. It's a plan they believe will save precious Idaho rangeland.
The Owyhee RFPA was given some new equipment to fight fires on both public and private grazing land. The association chairmen tell me they have been waiting on this equipment for years and they're relieved to finally have a new fleet to fight wildfires.
"The reason that we need all the equipment is so we can get to the fires faster," Owyhee RFPA Chairman Doug Rutan told KTVB. "If you can get to them while they're small you can put them out with water."
Modeled after Oregon's fire protection associations, they were established in Idaho in 2012: the first in Mountain Home, followed by the group in the Owyhee Rangelands.