The blaze started in late August on Labor Day weekend near the Giant White Pine campground.  The USFS quickly took over management of the fire suppression effort.  The fire was holding steady around 30 acres after about a week before it exploded in early September to nearly 1,000 acres.

The final update from the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise has the White Pine Fire still at 82% contained at just over 1,000.  The update estimates that full containment will be reached on Halloween.  The agency notes that it has cost the federal government nearly 17 million dollars to fight the White Pine Fire.  Hundreds of personnel have fought the fire at various times over the past month.  There are currently 60 firefighters still assigned to the blaze.  It’s not clear if the Giant White Pine Campground or Laird Park and its campground near the fire remain closed.  This is the first large timber fire in local mountains of Latah County to be managed by the federal government in recent memory.

The most recent similar blazes were put out by Idaho Department of Lands fire crews.  The Sand Mountain Fire in the same area of the Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forest burned in the summer of 2021.  State firefighters had that larger 1,500 acre fire out in about a month.

Another similar large forest blaze near where the White Pine Fire is burning was the Strychnine Fire which burned about 1,000 acres in the summer of 2017.  IDL crews had that fire out in 11 days.  It cost Idaho state taxpayers 2.5 million in 2017 dollars to extinguish the thousand acre Strychnine Fire.

Both the Strychnine and Sand Mountain Fires burned within a couple of miles or where the White Pine Fire continues to smolder under federal management.