Lack of fires good news? Not for seasonal crews

Twenty-year veteran firefighter Wayne Rogers considers his crew lucky to be able to work at all this summer.

Many firefighters are seasonal workers, and if there are no fires to put out, they do not have a job."The fire season certainly hasn't been a moneymaker," said Rogers, a captain with the Salt Lake County Fire Department. "Most of the guys who are married have a second job. Some are strictly just on call. I'm sure it's hurting them."

Although the season has been unprofitable for firefighters in Utah and Idaho, it has been a welcome reprieve across much of a West still recuperating from the frightful scorching of 1996.

Unseasonably wet conditions, low temperatures and a lack of dry lightning storms have all but ensured that this year will be one of the slowest fire seasons in Utah and Idaho this decade.

At the Forest Service smokejumper center in McCall, Idaho, the 60 smokejumpers there have been only about a third as busy as normal and some have been sent to Alaska and New Mexico for fires.

"Utah was very hot and dry last year, but we haven't had any smokejumpers there at all this year, and Idaho's still green," said squad leader Rick Hudson.

Many of the jumpers depend on overtime from the fire season to pay for college and other expenses and so aren't very happy about the inactivity.

"I haven't seen anyone suicidal," Hudson said, but joked, "People are going to be eating hot dogs and beans this winter instead of caviar and steak."

Mike Apicello, spokesman for the Interagency Fire Centers in Boise, said this summer bears no comparison to busy fire years. "There's been a series of weather patterns over the Pacific Northwest which have kept field conditions wetter than normal. Most of the lightning has been wet lightning," he said.

Bill Alder, meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Salt Lake City, said thunderstorms with heavy rain have dampened the soil and formed a deep layer of moisture, making it difficult for fires to ignite.

"We've had a decent monsoon," Alder said, adding that the region can expect wet conditions to persist at least until Labor Day.

Surprisingly, given this summer's mild weather, the numbers of fires in Utah and Idaho are similar to last year. However, the number of acres burned is significantly less.