Bonneville County creating new fire rangeland fire district

Bonneville County will have one more tool on their hands to fight wildfires in the future.

County leaders met with burn area farmers and ranchers, the Idaho Department of Lands, and the BLM to create a new Rangeland Fire Protection Association or RFPA.

A RFPA is like a fire district but instead of relying solely on fire fighting agencies if a fire happens, they include and let people who live within its boundaries help fight the fire. Farmers and ranchers apart of the RFPA will be given the equipment and training necessary to fight fires.

“These farmers and ranchers will be coordinated in a cohesive way to help fight fires before they get too big,” said Dave Radford, a Bonneville County Commissioner.

Radford said people with the RFPA will not only help stop future fires from growing too quickly, but they’ll have emergency radios to inform other agencies quickly about the fire. This will help get more man power on the fire faster than in the past.

So far the county and all interested parties have had two meetings discussing the creation of the fire district. The next and probably final planning meeting will happen on December 12 at the County Courthouse at 6:30 PM.