LAVA FIRE UPDATE – September 15, 2024 (PDF)  LavaFireDailyUpdate_September 15 2024_final

Anna Daly writes: The Frangelica, Wapiti, Lava, Goose Chase, Cotton, and Willow Fires are just a handful of the dozens of fires burning over 400,000 acres in Idaho.

When looking at the Idaho fire map, it’s hard not to notice the variety of names for fires. However, the system for naming them is pretty straightforward and based on the fires’ locations.
“We usually name fires based on the closest drainage, landmark, or road,” the Bureau of Land Management Boise District Office’s Chad Cline said. “Either the dispatch that’s plotting the fire or the incident commander that gets to the fire first chooses the name.”

While naming fires is based on the closest landmark, it can get complicated if multiple agencies are responding to the fire. For example, the fire that burned in Boise during the first week of September had two names at one point: the Plex Fire and the Eyele Fire.

“When the fire started, the city was first on scene and named it. However, once BLM arrived and it was confirmed the fire was on BLM land, we took command and renamed the fire,” Cline said. “If it starts on BLM land then we name it but I did notice that it caused a lot of confusion.”

Also after a busy fire season, officials can sometimes come to roadblocks when coming up with a good name. For example, the 57th fire in North Idaho in 2015 was named the ‘Not Creative Fire.’

“The person in charge of naming the fire was not feeling really creative at 3 in the morning,” Idaho Department of Lands Public Information Officer Sharla Arledge said in an article from the Couer d’Alene Press. “Sometimes you have to find some humor in all of this.”
(The Wapiti Fire. Photo: Courtesy Custer County Sheriff)