State of emergency declared for Duck Valley and Owyhee County

A state of emergency for the Duck Valley Indian Reservation was declared Monday by Kyle Prior, Chairman of the Shoshone-Paiute Tribes, as fires had burned over 240 power poles in the south Idaho/northern Nevada region, causing a mass power outage on the reservation.

Gov. Otter has declared five Idaho counties, including Owyhee county, as disaster areas, due to the fires burning throughout the state.

The declaration authorizes the use of state resources to assist in efforts for the affected counties.

Monday was the sixth day with no electricity for the Duck Valley community and surrounding areas.

The tribe is helping its community members by supplying households with water, dry ice, cubed or block ice, propane, flashlights, batteries, batter-operated fans and generators for the elderly and those with medical needs.

The tribal fire department also is providing water to homes, filling bathtubs with water for sanitation facilities.

According to Raft River Electric Cooperative, power will not be restored until power poles can be replaced in the Sunflower Flats area south of Mountain City, where another fire recently burned 40 poles.

Kim Smith, Operations Manager at Raft River Electric Cooperative said, he did not know when power would be restored. "They (firefighters) won't let us in on the line to work on our poles. We're at a standstill," he continued. He also said he did not know if (they) would want to go in because the fire is burning wild.

Dennis Lopez, Public Information Specialist with Idaho Power, said, "We've had a number of structures lost in the fire." However, "we don't provide distribution services there (Duck Valley Indian Reservation). They are not our customers."

With power out and food spoiling, Prior dispatched tribal employees to assess the needs of households within the community. Crews have been working around the clock to make sure basic needs are met, such as food and water, medical supplies, etc.

Raft River has provided generators to keep the main water systems operating, powering pumps and sewer lift stations.

Donations have come in from other individuals as well. One such donation came from Mountain Home Air Force Base, which sent a refrigerated truck with 1,000 pounds of dry ice.

The city of Mountain Home also has sent aid to the Tribe. The city will send a $300 check to the Wells Fargo emergency fund and a $1,000 check to the Duck Valley Indian Reservation.

Sher Sellman and others have donated ice, batteries and flashlights, as well as their time, to get the items to the Tribe.

The Tribe is expending its resources and the supply is running low. Families need food, water, ice, coolers, batteries, lanterns, camp stoves for cooking, gasoline and propane.

An emergency fund has been set-up with Wells Fargo.

Tribal Vice Chairman Robert Bar has been named Incident Commander. The IC Post is at the Human Development Center and the phone number is (775) 757-2922.

It was unknown whether the Duck Valley Indian Reservation was receiving federal or state aid. Messages were left for Kyle Prior, but he had not returned the newspaper's calls.

The Murphy Complex Fire is responsible for the power outages on the reservation, said Mike Brown, Public Affairs Specialist with the Elko Field Office.

He said the fire is a combination of six fires that burned together. The fire has consumed over a half million acres of public, state and private land as of early afternoon on Monday.

Evacuations took place in the areas of Jarbridge, Nev., and Murphy Hot Springs starting last Wednesday.