FILE – In this June 30, 2016 file photo firefighters respond to a wildfire near the Morningside Heights neighborhood near Table Rock in east Boise, Idaho. With a potential ferocious wildfire season ready to ignite across the western U.S., the push is on to persuade state and federal wildland firefighters to get vaccinated against COVID-19. Republican Idaho Gov. Brad Little said Tuesday, May 18, 2021, that lives could be lost if frontline firefighters get sidelined with the illness.
FILE – In this June 30, 2016 file photo firefighters respond to a wildfire near the Morningside Heights neighborhood near Table Rock in east Boise, Idaho. With a potential ferocious wildfire season ready to ignite across the western U.S., the push is on to persuade state and federal wildland firefighters to get vaccinated against COVID-19. Republican Idaho Gov. Brad Little said Tuesday, May 18, 2021, that lives could be lost if frontline firefighters get sidelined with the illness.
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — With a potentially ferocious wildfire season threatening to ignite across the western U.S., a push is on to persuade wildland firefighters to get vaccinated against COVID-19.
Republican Idaho Gov. Brad Little said Tuesday that lives could be lost if frontline state and federal firefighters get sidelined with the illness as tinder-dry conditions prompt state officials to brace for the worst.
Little made his remarks said during a meeting of the Idaho Land Board, which manages state-owned land, much of it forested.
“If they’re going to get vaccinated, they need to get vaccinated today, because in three weeks we’re going to be right in the middle of fire season,” the governor said.
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management held a virtual town hall last week that included an emergency room doctor urging crews to get the vaccination.
At least two states, Texas and Alaska, are requiring firefighters to get a rapid test for the coronavirus before being allowed into the state to fight fires.
The national Drought Monitor shows 84% of the West is in drought conditions, with 47% in extreme or exceptional drought.
The National Interagency Fire Center in Boise directs the nation’s wildland firefighting resources and forecasts fire conditions.