All burning is currently open with 

permits being issued for yard waste,

burn barrels and slash piles. 

A no-cost 10-day permit from the

Idaho Dept. of Lands (IDL) is required and can be obtained at www.burnpermits.idaho.gov

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Recreational, cooking fires, small campfires or  warming fires, 

chimineas, and fire pits are 

allowed without a permit.

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You must have a copy of your IDL permit and a copy of the District's burning regulations on hand while burning.

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You must call the Air Quality Hotline

at 1-800-633-6247 (Option #3 for Kootenai County) for conditions prior to burning. If air quality is Green, burning is allowed. If air quality is Yellow or Red, burning is not allowed in the District.

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Greetings and thank you for taking the time to visit our website. I wish you and yours a wonderful and safe holiday season!

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It's business as usual for your fire and emergency medical crews in the Northern Lakes Fire District. They are busy responding to calls, performing fire hydrant maintenance, and attending necessary trainings to maintain proficiencies and capabilities in all aspects of Fire and EMS response.

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It’s no secret that growth in our District and all of Kootenai County continues to happen. We are still doing our very best to maintain the level of service that every one of you expects and deserves. Our administrative staff and executive team have worked hard over the summer to deliver a balanced budget to our Board of Fire Commissioners for their approval. Our new budget includes equipment needed for our crews to operate safety and to ensure that we will head off a more significant expenditure in the future. 

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We are actively considering asking the public to vote on a permanent tax override levy next May. This request for additional funding would staff a currently vacant building and make it a fire station that can respond 24/7 in a rapidly growing area of our District. As the Fire Chief, I have heard the voice of the voting public in our past attempts and will wait until the final ballot initiatives for the upcoming November election are counted. Voters residing in our District will be voting on several bond measures or levy increase requests from other taxing district that provide services. The need to increase our annual budget has not gone away and is just as strong as ever.

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I have had several responses to my request for volunteers to be on a citizens advisory committee and plan on getting that group together in November sometime after election day. I feel strongly about having all of the information on the impact of what we are asking of our taxpayers. In the meantime, we are slowly adding personnel to our complement of emergency responders.

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One serious issue that I need to let you know about is the agency that rates every fire department in the state of Idaho changed some rules recently that directly impacted homeowners’ insurance premiums dramatically. Each case is different for each homeowner, but the outcome is the same for everyone in the affected area. The addition of another staffed fire station will decrease our response times in that area and will ease some of the increase in premiums in the same area.

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In closing, I want to assure each of you that we continue to train, prepare, and equip our personnel to respond as effectively and efficiently as possible. As always, I ask that when you see your crews working out on the streets doing what they do so well, please take a moment to thank them and let them know they are appreciated and valued.

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                                             Respectfully,

                                                        Pat Riley, Fire Chief

                                                                                           Phone: 208-772-5711

                                                                                           Email: pwriley@northernlakesfire.com

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EMERGENCY ALERT

PUBLIC MEETINGS

Alert! Kootenai is the emergency alert system that enables the County to provide the public with critical information quickly in a variety of situations, such as winter storms, flooding, major forest fires, unexpected road closures, evacuations of building or neighborhoods and more.

Provides an all-hazards response to the greater Hayden, Rathdrum, and Twin Lakes areas in Kootenai County, located in gorgeous North Idaho. We are a career department, comprised of thirty-six firefighters, three Chief Officers, a Fire Marshal and Deputy Fire Marshal, and three administrative support staff. In addition, all of our firefighters are also certified EMTs, including fifteen paramedics.

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Northern Lakes Fire staffs two fire engines and two advanced life support (ALS) ambulances with career staff that respond to more than 5,000 emergency calls annually from two strategically located fire stations. These stations are staffed 24/7/365. Our district is comprised of approximately 108 square miles of lakes, mountains, prairies and growing cities with a population of more than 45,000 residents. 

Please enjoy our website for your informational needs!