Lack of KID water during Zintel Canyon fire caused frightening scenario | Opinion

A roaring fire and a lack of water pressure recently made a frightening combination for some Kennewick Irrigation District customers living on the edge of Zintel Canyon.

But the intense situation also brought out the best in people who joined together to keep their properties wet during the blaze.

Cindy Suryan said her neighborhood could not use irrigation water because it “would just trickle out.”

“There was no pressure,” she told the Herald.

So people shared hoses and used city water to dampen what they could while they watched the fire spread through the canyon. Suryan said someone even got a splitter so several hoses could be hooked up to the house at once.

“It was terrifying,” she said.

Evelyn Lusignan, Kennewick’s public relations and customer service manager, said that in an emergency using city water is the right thing to do.

In the future, though, we hope that won’t have to be the case for KID customers living near Zintel Canyon. Clearly, there is work to be done in the aftermath of the recent fire that burned 30 acres, destroyed one home and an outbuilding and scorched another house.

Continued monitoring is obviously necessary to make sure the nature preserve doesn’t attract illegal campers, and efforts to clean out dead and dry brush and trees must be a priority.

Kennewick Fire Department officials already have been making the rounds and encouraging residents in that area not to have plants and trees growing close to their homes. Making sure KID customers have adequate water pressure also should be at the top of the district’s list.

Fortunately, the blaze did not reach Suryan’s neighborhood. She lives across the canyon from where most of the damage was done, but the blaze was still frightening. She said that from her home she can see the house that burned, and she worried the wind would shift, sending the flames close to where she lives.

Adding to her stress, the KID pump that delivers water to Suryan’s home had not been working when the fire broke out, though its working now.

Matthew Berglund, KID public relations coordinator, said it was an unfortunate set of circumstances.

While he didn’t have specifics regarding this particular incident, he said KID has 120 pump stations and when one goes out it can take a long while to get parts. It can also take time to get a technician, and sometimes KID officials have to coordinate with other agencies in order to make needed repairs.

Berglund said KID is in the process of eliminating the use of small pump stations and will rely only on bigger pump stations. This should lead to less maintenance work in the future.

He also noted that KID works with the city to spill more water in Zintel Canyon and raise the water table when necessary.

And as it happens, many people living in the Zintel Canyon area are not part of the KID system, anyway. The boundaries were made many years ago and there are pockets all over Kennewick that are not serviced by the KID.

Where Suryan lives is within the KID service area, though, so it is regrettable that she and her neighbors who rely on irrigation water weren’t able to use it when the fire was raging.

Zintel Canyon is a natural recreation area that isn’t meant to be a manicured park. But even so, it still requires upkeep.

Safety concerns were heightened in 2018 when nine separate fires erupted in the canyon between April 3 and Oct. 1 that year.

At the time, city officials pledged to clean up the popular walking area. They partnered with volunteers to clear brush and dead trees from the area while still leaving the character of Zintel Canyon intact, and the program went really well until it was paused during the COVID lockdown.

Now it’s time to get a cleanup crew going again. The cause of the recent fire is still unknown. People have speculated that homeless campers in the area started it, but there is no proof of that.

Still, a renewed focus on Zintel Canyon is warranted. Kennewick Fire Chief Chad Michael said he plans to get something organized soon, and will be working with other city officials and other agencies to coordinate future volunteer opportunities.

The sooner that can happen, the better. No one wants to see a string of Zintel Canyon fires like we did in five years ago.