Fire threatens homes in Parvin

A Parvin area fire burned fields and brush in a seven-hour battle late Aug. 20. The fire at one time threatened houses, a barn and other structures at Parvin.

Colfax crews the morning of Aug. 21 responded to a flare-up in the burned area above Parvin. Heavy smoke was generated by the flare-up.

Albion crew members reportedly stayed on the scene until 3 a.m. Aug. 21 and observed several smoldering sites.

The first fire call at Colfax Aug. 20 was logged at 4:38 p.m. and rural crews and tankers responded from four different districts. The log shows all District 11 trucks were back in the Colfax station by just before 11 p.m. that night.

The fire actually started up the grade from Parvin in a grain field on the north side of the road. Winds drove the fire east and it jumped the Parvin Road to the south side.

It burned crop fields on both sides of the road and then got into a CRP field. The fire spread from the CRP into brush and timber.

Assistant Colfax Fire Chief Jim Krouse said the close brush and trees around the houses at Parvin became a big concern, particularly if the wind, which had driven the fire on the top of the hill, kept blowing at the same force.

Most of the buildings on the south side of the road at Parvin are surrounded by trees and located close to brush on the hillside where the fire was descending Aug. 20.

One of the structures which was unscathed at Parvin on the north side of the road is a temporary growing structure with a plastic cover.

Firefighters extended hoses on foot down the face of the hill in back of Parvin and other firefighters worked out of trucks up the hill from the Parvin Road to stop the fire before it reached a barn and the houses at the bottom of the hill.

Overall, the fire covered an estimated 75 acres, Krouse said.

A harvest crew was cutting in the area where the fire started, but the ignition point of the fire was not where the crew was operating at the time, Krouse said.

Crews from Albion and Rural District 11 based in Colfax were assisted by Rural District 12 out of Pullman, Palouse District 4 and Rural District 14 out of Colton-Uniontown.

Tanker trucks and area farmers with tractors also took part in the battle.