Today's headlines:
- Five first responders from north Idaho are honored for their actions during a wildfire and shooting on Canfield Mountain in Coeur d’Alene last year.
- Spokane Sports officials are optimistic about their chances of bringing a new major sporting event to the Lilac City.
- Federal crews cleaning up wildfire-contaminated properties in Spokane have reached a milestone.
Audrey Nelson goes along with a California team that’s helping Spokane property owners recover the remains of loved ones.
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Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador awarded the state’s Medal of Honor to nine first responders yesterday. Five are from North Idaho departments.
All five were on Coeur d’Alene’s Canfield Mountain in June 2025, when a gunman ambushed first responders working a wildland fire. Two other responders died in the attack.
The recipients are Deputies Harvey Ballman, Arik Brock and Joshua Orr; Fire Captain Ernst Fritz Widenhoff; and Engineer David Tysdal.
Tysdal was paralyzed in the ambush. Labrador says the engineer risked his life to protect other first responders.
Raul Labrador: He used the only body part he could move to warn them. Even though his movement could have drawn the attention of the shooter back to him, he used his chin to key his radio to warn others about the ambush.
Labrador held back tears as he described how the three deputies evacuated survivors in a SWAT vehicle.
Raul Labrador: Every time they exited the Bearcat to retrieve the injured and trapped firefighters, Deputies Ballman, Brock and Orr risked their lives and exposed themselves to great risk.
The Idaho Medal of Honor is the state’s highest award for valor. It was created in 2004 to recognize first responders who go above and beyond the call of duty. Before yesterday, 92 Idahoans had received the honor.
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A national figure skating event could be coming to the Inland Northwest in 2028. It’s a sport that will make its way to the 2030 Winter Olympics for the first time. Spokane Public Radio’s Lisa Leinberger has the details.
Spokane was a figure skating hub in 2007 and 2010, when it hosted the U.S. Figure Skating National Championships. In 2028, figure skating could make its way back to the area, but with some differences.
Ashley Blake, the CEO of the Spokane Sports Commission, says it’s synchronized skating. A sport that includes up to 16 skaters at a time performing a routine to music.
BLAKE: It’s a really popular sport that’s growing. From a spectator standpoint, I’ve attended the championships before, and it’s unbelievable. The culture around it, the spirit and just the community that’s built around the synchronized ice-skating championships is tremendous.
The sports commission has been in talks with the decision-makers of U.S. Figure Skating for the last four years. If selected, the competition would be held at the Spokane Arena.
Blake says the timing of the show would be a boon to the local economy, since it would be held in February of 2028, when business is slower.
BLAKE: First and foremost, the food and beverage industry is impacted, lodging, retail, transportation and then our entertainment and recreation as well. So, we’re anticipating millions of dollars of economic impact from this event.
Blake hopes Spokane will know in about 60 days whether or not the area has won its bid.
I’m Lisa Leinberger reporting.
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The Spokane Board of County Commissioners has approved a plan to increase the property tax for the Spokane Conservation District.
Taxpayers will see an increase of five dollars per parcel per year to help fund the program. The Conservation District, a program that originated after the 1930s Dust Bowl, helps with natural resource conservation.
Vicky Carter is from the conservation district. She told the council that taxpayers are currently paying $10 per parcel per year. That’s about 15% of the district’s budget. More than 75% of its funding comes to it through grants. The last time the district sought a rate change was in 2019.
The commissioners approved the rate increase by a vote of four to one. Commissioner Josh Kerns was the only no vote. He said the top issues residents voice to him are inflation and affordability.
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The Environmental Protection Agency says its wildfire teams are making progress in cleaning up wildfire-contaminated properties in north Spokane. The agency says the work to remove hazardous materials at burned sites is now more than half complete. It estimates about 450 properties have been cleaned and nearly 70-thousand pounds of toxics have been removed. EPA says it has brought in about 250 people from around the country to do that work.
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An unusual wildfire recovery organization arrived in Spokane this past weekend. The Alta Heritage Foundation helps people recover their cremated loved ones from homes destroyed by wildfires. SPR’s Audrey Nelson tagged along to find out how they do it.
[Digging sounds]
AUDREY NELSON: CaitLynn Burt peers down at a tangle of burned wreckage. She’s standing on what used to be her back patio, staring at what used to be her home. Below her, five archaeologists in white Tyvek suits and respirators sift through the rubble.
[Clanking sounds]
They’re looking for the box that held Burt’s mom’s ashes. Tara Rooney died 12 years ago, when Burt was just 16.
CAITLYNN BURT: She was very smart. She was the one who was always helping me with my math homework.
Burt kept Rooney’s ashes in a cardboard box, in the North Spokane duplex she rented with her husband, Keenan.
Then, on August first, wildfires overtook Spokane. The Burts were out of town at the time. They watched social media videos of their home burning to the ground.
BURT: My brain and body just kind of went into survival mode. And it was—I almost just didn’t feel anything. You know, it’s just like—it’s another loss. It’s just another loss.
Burt thought her mom’s ashes were gone for good — mixed in with toxic debris and bound for a waste disposal site.
BURT: I know it’s just physical and she’s always there with me no matter what, but just having that is—it would just be really meaningful.
Then she heard about a California-based nonprofit called the Alta Heritage Foundation.
The foundation’s volunteer archaeologists recover previously cremated human remains from homes destroyed by wildfires. They call what they do a “humanitarian service” — and offer it for free.
Chelsea Rose is a historical archaeologist with Alta Heritage.
CHELSEA ROSE: You know, it’s really surprising. Over the hundreds of recoveries we’ve done to date, we’ve really developed techniques for recognizing ashes within ashes.
But before Rose and her colleagues actually sift through that ash, they use cadaver dogs to get an idea of where remains may be.
Lori Blackburn is a search and rescue handler from Oregon. She and her dog Cagney came north to assist with the Spokane wildfires.
LORI BLACKBURN: Yeah, this is kind of like your own holocaust, you know, in terms of losing everything and the state that these buildings are in. If we can help in any way to help find somebody's family remains, there's those of us that are going to do that.
As the Burts watch, Cagney takes an initial lap of their property. She pauses, then lies down near the back of the home — alerting Blackburn that she’s scented human remains.
Now the archaeologists can move in.
[Digging sounds]
Emily Taber serves as treasurer and client coordinator for Alta Heritage.
EMILY TABER: We tend to cut in more like we’re cutting into a cake because that exposes in profile what we’re looking for.
Another archaeologist is Anna Coon. She’s from Spokane.
COON: I was looking for differences in what we were sifting through — I was looking for color differences, I was looking for texture differences. I was trying to feel as I took the trowel back and sifted things closer to myself if the consistency changed so that I could feel it in my hand.
After about 45 minutes of clearing and sifting, Taber, Coon and their colleagues take a break. Taber says the dogs might have alerted at what’s known as a “scent pool” — a kind of false alarm.
Sure enough, on their second pass, the dogs alert near the house’s chimney. This time, the archaeologists find an intact ceramic vase.
BURT: Oh yeah, that was on the shelf! That was on the shelf!
Eventually, archaeologist Kassie Rippee fills up a plastic bag with fine gray ash. She brings it out to the Burts.
RIPPEE: We can say with confidence that there’s some material in here, some of the cremains in here. So we wanted to bring that back to you.
Burt takes the bag, then gives Rippee a hug. She laughs when she imagines what she’d say to her mom if she were here.
BURT: Well, she’d probably be like, What the hell are you doing, man? What the hell are you doing wasting all this time on me right now? You know?
Burt pauses for a second.
BURT: Yeah. But I would just tell her I love her and I miss her.
Burt’s recovery was the archaeology team’s second stop of the day. Now they pile back into their cars to head to the next home.
I’m Audrey Nelson, reporting.
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SPR News Today is a production of Spokane Public Radio.
Reporting today was contributed by Audrey Nelson, Lisa Leinberger and Doug Nadvornick, today’s host and producer. Web support is provided by Anna Gyure Havlek.
Thanks for listening to the podcast. This is SPR News.
