Small Town News

Housing agency kicks in $50,000 in arson effort

---

When fire was coming over the mountain, men didn't want to leave their homes and elderly citizens were helpless, like children, in the face of the oncoming disaster.

That was a defining moment for many residents of the Colville Indian Reservation Sept. 16, as firefighters and volunteers evacuated homes and the Colville Convalescent Center.

Thursday, the board members of the Colville Indian Housing Authority, which operates housing under the federal Dept. of Housing and Urban Development agency, voted to provide another $50,000 toward a fund aimed at raising awareness of the arson problem that has burned more than 35,000 acres and cost more than $20 million just for fighting the fires on the reservation over the last five years.

Board members said they'd had enough.

"One of the things we have to take ownership for is our own communities," Board Chairman Soy Redthunder said. "If we don't do that, it's going to happen again next year."

Mt. Tolman Fire Center officials had already brought in a National Fire Prevention Team from Colorado to help organize a community campaign. The $50,000 will boost a reward fund already at $100,000 for information leading to a conviction of an arsonist responsible.

Authorities have no suspect, despite rumors, said Fire Manager Ike Caw-ston.

When the fire crested the hill Sept. 16, it threatened 25 homes built and managed by CIHA.

"Even though the homes here were affected by the evacuation," noted Executive Director Elena L. Bassett, as a housing authority we have 490 homes throughout the reservation." Fire could devastate any of them. "Every one of us should be very concerned and should be mad about what is going on."

"Stop Burning Our Heritage" will be a theme hammered home with materials and community meetings organized to raise awareness of the problem.

That will include encouraging people to use an anonymous tip system that nobody has wanted to use, according to one member of the national team.

They stressed that calls to WeTip are completely anonymous. If you call the WeTip number and say who you are, the operator is trained to hang up on you. They don't want your name, Caw-, ston said.

Awareness efforts will also include T-shirts, bigger "Arson-Caused Fire" signs, posters and door hangers.

"This is a serious problem that is affecting all residents," Cawston said. "Because of the wide-spread nature of these arson- caused fires, everyone is potentially threatened. The land and part of our heritage, is being damaged."

Mt. Tolman has fought 175 fires this year.

"Our staff is tired," Cawston said.

"It's going to take a community effort ... to catch this arsonist," he said. "People, they know some things out there, and they have to bring it forward. They can no longer just stand back and say, it doesn't impact me."

WeTip Hotline (800-47-ARSON)

Community meetings planned

The National Fire Prevention Team has scheduled community information meetings to discuss the arson problem in every community on the reservation.

A meeting took place in Nespelem Tuesday afternoon.

Another is scheduled for 7 p.m. Thursday in the Coulee Dam Town Hall.

For more information, call 509-634-3161



Copyright 2009 The Star, Grand Coulee, Washington. All Rights Reserved. This content, including derivations, may not be stored or distributed in any manner, disseminated, published, broadcast, rewritten or reproduced without express, written consent from SmallTownPapers, Inc.

© 2009 The Star Grand Coulee, Washington. All Rights Reserved. This content, including derivations, may not be stored or distributed in any manner, disseminated, published, broadcast, rewritten or reproduced without express, written consent from DAS.

More from The Star