Heed Smokey the Bear's wise words this fire season

We pride ourselves, when living in the Inland Northwest, that we do not have to endure Mother Nature’s wrath, as do other parts of the country.

We don’t have tornadoes like the Midwest, nor hurricanes like the South and Atlantic Coast.

We’re relatively safe from earthquakes, even though there’s a newly discovered fault that runs along Hangman Creek and the Spokane River.

Floods come and go, ice storms are rare and we’re pretty well-versed at dealing with snow.

But if there’s one natural force that could — and now does — thrust us into the national spotlight, it’s wildfires.

As the state’s largest blaze in recorded history at over 250,000 acres, the massive Carlton Complex fire in Okanogan County made national headlines as it quickly surpassed the 2006 Tripod Complex fire, also in Okanogan County, in size.

While large and destructive, the fire is small compared to the Great Fire of 1910 that devastated so much of North Idaho. It consumed 3 million acres and claimed 86 lives.

Started by lightning, the Carlton Complex fire will soon surpass $25 million in suppression costs alone — half the cost of $50 million projected for the season. The personal costs of an estimated 300 homes lost, plus timber and damage to agriculture has not yet begun to be calculated.

The smoke that wafted along the prevailing winds fouled our air. If there was any good side it certainly gave us spectacular sunrises and sunsets.

We’ve experienced fires up close recently with the Watermelon Hill fire that raced across some 12,000 acres southwest of Cheney. It had many on edge, disrupted the lives of several — albeit temporarily — but luckily no lives or homes were lost.

What was, perhaps, the most frustrating thing about this fire was its possible cause: three people shooting exploding targets, according to the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office. That blaze began in their jurisdiction, then quickly spread into southern Spokane County. Besides fighting the fire, officials spent time searching for a yellow pickup with a black stripe that was seen in the vicinity of the ignition point of the blaze.

Statistics say that four out of five wildfires have a human hand involved in some way. That can be direct with the use of open flames of one sort or another — like the alleged target shooters — or from vehicles with hot exhaust or sparks from passing trains.

Some of the most destructive and memorable wildfires on the West Plains have been human caused.

In August 1996, the Christensen Road fire took off from an ember from carelessly burning trash on an extremely blustery day.

Over its course the fire consumed over 3,000 acres, eight homes, a number of other structures and cost over $1 million to fight. The homeowners were later sent a bill, but whether that money was ever paid back to the state is not known.

A year later, a man using a blowtorch to cut a bolt started the Newkirk Road blaze that burnt 600 acres, three outbuildings, but luckily, no homes.

Charges were filed and bills presented to the people at fault but with seven-figure costs for suppression and damage, it’s unlikely any bills were ever paid, unless it was through property owners insurance.

So much of making sure fires do not wreak havoc, misery and tragedy for us comes down to common sense of course — something this space has addressed over and over and over again —with the tremendously dry land around us.

We sit only partially through the 2014 fire season, and knowing that the causes so often point to us, please carry forward with the knowledge and wise words from the iconic Smokey the Bear, knowing, in large part, “Only you can prevent wildfires.”