James Primmer

James Primmer, doing business as Idaho Heavy Equipment, is a self-certified small disadvantaged business sole proprietorship based in Rathdrum, Idaho, that supplies wildland fire suppression equipment, water tenders, heavy machinery, and certified personnel to the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service as a prime contractor under total small business set-asides.

Idaho Heavy Equipment operates entirely as a prime contractor—100% of 21 recent awards are prime contracts or IDIQs with no subcontract footprint. The vendor's customer concentration is narrow and single-agency: 95% of awards fund Department of Agriculture Forest Service programs, split between the Region 1 Northern Region (13 awards, $697 thousand combined potential value) and the Fire and Aviation Management National Interagency Fire Center (7 awards, $1.8 million combined potential value). All work tracks to forest fire suppression, all-hazard incident response, and prescribed burn operations across western U.S. Forest Service regions (Regions 1, 2, 4, 8, and 9).

Idaho Heavy Equipment holds five active Indefinite Delivery Contracts through the National Interagency Fire Center, all awarded since June 2022 under total small business set-asides: two $500,000-ceiling contracts for water handling equipment and personnel (through May 2030), two $250,000-ceiling contracts for miscellaneous heavy equipment including feller bunchers, graders, and skidders (one through May 2029, one through May 2025), and one expired $250,000-ceiling water handling contract (through May 2025). These IDIQs enable competitive issuance of Incident Blanket Purchase Agreements through the Virtual Incident Procurement (VIPR) system. Representative task orders include a $41,290 delivery order (July 2026, completion September 2026), a $38,256.25 delivery order for water handling resources (September 2025, completion September 2025), and a $34,000 delivery order (August 2026, completion August 2026), all firm fixed-price orders issued under total small business set-asides by Region 1 Northern Region and the National Interagency Fire Center.

Activity has accelerated in 2025–2026 after a dormant period: two awards in 2021, one in 2022, then a single 2024 award, followed by three awards in 2025 and five in 2026 through August. The combined potential value of recent awards is $2.5 million against $369 thousand obligated (15% drawdown). The vendor's capability portfolio is tightly scoped to fire suppression logistics—water tenders, heavy equipment operation, personnel services, transportation, and lodging—with no diversification into other Forest Service or federal customer segments. The sole proprietorship was registered in 2004 according to source material, indicating a two-decade operational history in wildland fire resource contracting.