Fire

A firefighter and fire truck at the scene of Saturday afternoon’s brush fire along Interstate 15 north of McCammon.

Bannock County emergency responders had a very busy 90 minutes on Saturday afternoon when they were confronted with a brush fire, a woman having an allergic reaction to a bee sting on a remote mountain and a motorcycle vs. minivan crash.

The brush fire occurred first along Interstate 15 north of McCammon. The Downey, McCammon, Pocatello Valley, Inkom and Lava Hot Springs fire departments and Bureau of Land Management firefighters responded to the 12:45 p.m. blaze and had the flames contained by 2 p.m., authorities said.

The fire did not result in any injuries, damage to structures or evacuations, but did scorch about four acres along the west side of the freeway.

Firefighters remained on the scene for more than two hours making sure the fire was out. Interstate 15 was not shut down because of the blaze.

The Bannock County Sheriff’s Office reported that it received over 50 911 calls from passersby reporting the fire.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation.

Around 1:50 p.m. Bannock County emergency responders were summoned to Sedgwick Peak about 10 miles southeast of Lava Hot Springs for a woman who was experiencing a severe allergic reaction to a bee sting, authorities said.

Bannock County sheriff’s deputies and search and rescue personnel along with Lava Hot Springs Ambulance and the Portneuf Medical Center emergency helicopter headed toward the mountain to help the woman, who had been riding side-by-sides with friends when she was stung, authorities said.

While en route to the scene, several of the responders came across a crash between a motorcycle and Dodge minivan in front of the Flying J truck stop on Highway 30 in McCammon.

The motorcyclist, whose name hasn’t been released, suffered minor injuries and was treated by emergency responders at the scene but did not require transport to the hospital, authorities said.

The crash remains under investigation and further information was not immediately available.

Meanwhile the PMC helicopter was able to land on Sedgwick Peak and airlift the woman to PMC for treatment.

Her name and condition have not been released.

It wasn’t very long afterward that most of the emergency personnel who responded to these three incidents were dispatched to the massive wildfire west of Pocatello.

Many of them remained on the scene of that blaze until late Saturday night.

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