Former KTVB reporter Kaycee Murray reported on the fire as it spread through the Boise area. The hot and fast electricity created a strong current traveling through powerlines from Boise Avenue to Amity Road before reaching a piece of equipment called a connector on a power pole, she said during a broadcast. Investigators say that connector became so hot that it started to melt, causing molten metal to fall to the dry grass igniting what would become one of Boise s all-time biggest fires.
Dennis Doan had been elevated to Chief of Boise Fire six months before the Oregon Trail fire, which burned in southeast Boise in August 2008. It was his first major fire in command. It would be the largest and most devastating fire in his 30-year career.