BOISE, Idaho — A field trip several fifth-grade students were excited about turned out to be an unexpected story to tell.
Riverstone International School sends its fifth-grade class to the Intermountain Bird Observatory every year for an overnight trip to band birds, learn to set up their own tents and enjoy time together in nature. Their plans got disrupted this year when the Valley Fire sparked near Lucky Peak.
“I was woke up at like five and we were told that there was a fire,” fifth grader Tusken Dimattia said.
The students went to bed Thursday night, and around 5:45 a.m. Friday, they woke up early to find out there was a fire nearby. Derek Wright, Riverstone's outdoor recreation coordinator, said the elementary school director called him just in time for him to be able to get all the students packed up and evacuated out.
“I got out of my tent and walked up to Lucky Peak and I looked down and saw the flames,” Wright said. “It was rather large at that time, and this was around 5:45 a.m., and immediately I made the decision to wake the kids up and start packing up and getting out of there.”
Wright led the students to pack up immediately.
"We packed up pretty quickly, because we worked together,” Cyprus Scripps said.
Fire officials then escorted them down the mountain in their vehicles – driving so close to the flames the students could feel the heat.
“When we were going down there, the flame was like five meters – like away from the car,” August Reger said.
The students recognized that fire officials were able keep them safe, and said they were thankful for that.
“They were definitely keeping us safe,” Reger said.
Wright said the school was able to send out notifications to all parents about what the students were doing and how they were evacuating. They tried to be transparent and calm with the students, while showing the urgency of the situation.
“We told them there were some flames on the backside of Lucky Peak and that we needed to hustle and pack up our tents and pack up our personal gear and load up the cars and get down the mountain,” Wright said.
Students said they were glad when they were reunited with their parents following a crazy field trip.
“I really did not want to be up there while there's a huge forest fire going on,” Dimattia said.
And now – the Riverstone students said they will have quite the story to tell their friends and family.
“We were saying that we are going to brag to all of our friends about it, in our family and in the end, I really only told my family,” fifth grader Annika Slavic said.
Most importantly, Wright said it was a blessing that all the kids, chaperones and staff were able to get off the mountain safely, and that nobody was hurt in the process.
“The kids did really good, and the evacuation went so smooth because of the kids and their resiliency," Wright said. "That's ultimately what we teach through outdoor education."
