Within a matter of days last week, the East Zone Complex Fire base camp east of Lake Fork went from a bustling tent city to three empty trailers awaiting pick up.
The fire that made the camp necessary began on July 7. Most of the personnel and support services left camp for good last Friday in the wake of snow and rain that doused the fires around Warren and Secesh Meadows that cam presidents had battled for 10 weeks.
A smaller crew of less than 100 remained over the weekend but had relocated to area motels.
By Tuesday, all but one crew of 20 firefighters and an engine had left the East Zone Complex Fire, which burned 300,000 acres in the Payette National Forest this summer, Boise National
Incident Management Organization spokesperson Mike Ferris said.
The final firefighting crew will be patrolling roads from Secesh to Yellow Pine removing any new fallen trees or boulders blocking the reopened roads.
Dismantling of the camp that served as headquarters for the fire that produced 19 spike camps throughout the forest began last week.
"The neat thing about my job is we basically put up a city that can serve 2,000 people in about 48 hours," Boise NIMO team logistics section chief Brent Spencer said. "Then in a couple of days, we break it down."
Most of the $4.8 million of equipment was transported to the Great Basin fire cache located at the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise. Fifteen 48-footlong semi-trailers moved the equipment to be cleaned, accounted for, and stored in Boise.
Miles of fire hose
About five smaller trucks brought equipment and supplies back to the Payette forest in McCall, said Spencer, a 38-year veteran of the Forest Service.
A camp crew from the Confederated Tribes near Warm Springs, Ore., was taking down yurts and rolling up miles of fire hose to be shipped back to Boise for use at future fires.
A crew of San Juan Hotshots from Durango, Colo., worked under the Boise NIMO team last week, training and assisting with the breakdown of the camp.
A small number of firefighters from the Salt Lake City area were hired as temporary employees of the Payette forest to help break down the camp as well. Many truck drivers were also at work moving equipment last week. Camp served more than 1,000 people at its peak
It took 56 people to take down the camp that at its peak served more than 1,000 firefighters.
In all, the camp served 171,000 meals during the 76-day-long fire.
The total cost to fight the East Zone Complex was $32.5 million. About $7.5 million of that went toward personnel, $6.5 million went toward camp support, andabout $4.9 million went toward firefighting crews.
About $5.9 million was spent on aircraft and another $7.2 million was spent on equipment and supplies.
The decision to provide structure protection rather than to build fire lines around the fire likely saved at least $65 million from the total bill, Ferris said.
Had firefighters tried to suppress the fire and contain it within a fire line, Ferris estimated that 936 miles of fire line would have had to be built.
"Management has been more responsible for their strategies that they have used on this fire than fires in the past," San Juan hotshot superintendent Shawna Legarza said. "I think we saved a lot for the future of the forest. I think a lot of it needed to burn."
"The Payette area has been great," Legarza, a 19-year veteran of forest firefighting, said. "They've been through a lot, and the people have been very patient putting up with the politics of it."
The fire claimed four cabins - two at Warren and two at Copenhaver Subdivision along the South Fork of the Salmon River - and nine outbuildings. There were 13 injuries related to the fire.
