BOISE FOOTHILLS, Idaho — The Claremont Fire continues burning in the Boise Foothills more than a week after it started, and firefighters briefly halted operations Monday due to concerns over unexploded ordnance in the area.
“We’re sitting at 6805 acres, the fire has pretty much stayed within the initial footprint after those first few heavy days of initial attack,” said Leanne Langeberg, a spokesperson for the Claremont Fire team.
Langeberg said crews have made steady progress on containment, but safety concerns prompted fire managers to temporarily stop firefighting efforts.
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“The team made the decision to do that safety stand down, get firefighters back into a place where they could brief them on the concerns,” Langeberg said.
Those concerns stem from the area’s history as a former military firing range. The U.S. Army used to fire 75 mm artillery shells into the foothills for training purposes.
“We don’t know if all of the material that was fired exploded on impact, or some of it over time got buried underneath the ground,” Langeberg said.
Officials say crews have not discovered any unexploded ordnance yet while fighting the Claremont fire, but the Army Corps of Engineers recommended an 1,800-foot safety buffer around the mapped firing range. They are now back in action working outside of that buffer zone.
Boise Fire says they have dealt with similar concerns in the past.
“We had a fire in 1996 where during the rehab of the fire it was discovered that we had unexploded ordinance in that area, the fire did uncover ordinance,” said Brad Bolin, Assistant Fire Chief with Boise Fire.
Bolin said mitigation work was done in the area since then, but officials still identified the Claremont Fire burn area as a potential concern.
“We want to make sure that every firefighter that comes to support communities like the Boise community are able to go home safe to their families,” Langeberg added.
The Claremont Fire still has helicopters, dozers, hand crews and engines working on containment as the fire creeps into the tree line. Crews are shifting their operations farther east from Boise Ridge Road to an old logging road out of an abundance of caution.
