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Oregon Fires: Heat, dryness, lightning, wind fuel wildfire flames
Oregon Live ^ | 22 July 2002 | STUART TOMLINSON and ERIC MORTENSON

Posted on 07/22/2002 9:35:33 AM PDT by Grampa Dave

Fires: Heat, dryness, lightning, wind fuel wildfire flames

07/22/02

STUART TOMLINSON and ERIC MORTENSON

PAISLEY -- Oregon National Guard troops plan to join the battle today as 16 forest fires continue to rage unchecked in Central and Southern Oregon, burning 219,781 acres during the weekend and threatening hundreds of isolated homes and ranches despite the efforts of nearly 8,000 firefighters.

Gov. John Kitzhaber is expected to visit the Paisley area in south-central Oregon this afternoon, where the Winter and Tool Box fires merged during the weekend into a "megafire" covering more than 87,000 acres, the state's largest. He will also visit the Squire Peak fire camp south of Medford this morning.

Those fires, feeding on dead and dry ponderosa pines, have jumped, twisted and spread in a manner that officials described as "incredible." At one point last week, the Winter blaze created a "tornado" of fire, lifting whole trees and utility poles as it grew in two directions along Summer Lake, spreading 10 miles to the north and two miles to the south.

Firefighters have managed to save houses but have had to let the fire take its own path at times, said Jim Mair, incident commander of the Winter fire.

"One of our people said this fire is like a dragon -- every time it turns his head there's fire, so we don't want to disturb the dragon," Mair said.

A contingent of 250 National Guard troops is expected today to help with firefighting duties. The troops, 150 from the 82nd Battalion based in Bend and 100 from the 316th Battalion based in La Grande, will focus efforts on the southern end of the Winter fire, where most of their time will be spent mopping up after the blaze.

As of Sunday, the troops had spent five days in Bend at a basic fire-fighting camp learning skills. The soldiers must be supervised by fire crew bosses to ensure their safety in the charred forests.

"The problem now is finding enough fire crew bosses to get them out on the line," said Chris Friend, a spokesman for the Oregon Department of Forestry. "We've been shaking the trees to make sure we get enough."

One Summer Lake resident, Judy Blais Napier, was critical of the way state and federal officials handled the fire. Napier, who had to evacuate her 13 Tennessee walker horses from her 400-acre ranch and who nearly lost her home, said response was delayed and officials wasted time deciding jurisdiction.

Officials disagreed, pointing out that their crews helped save Napier's home. They also said the number of blazes in the region was a factor in how the fire was fought.

"We were so stretched out, where do you go first?" Mair asked. "It's still that way with resources; we still don't have enough resources."

The combined Winter and Tool Box fires continue to threaten about 60 homes as well as Bonneville Power Administration power lines, said David Widmark, spokesman for the Northwest Interagency Coordinating Center in Portland.

"It's moving in several different directions," Widmark said. "The winds in that area, because of the geography, change very quickly. That's one of the reasons we've had a hard time getting a handle on those fires."

Flames raced over a major communications site atop a mountain, but the facility remained in operation, he said. The facility includes Oregon State Police, Forest Service, Lake County and Bureau of Land Management radio and cell phone relays.

The Winter fire was said to be 40 percent contained Sunday, but officials said heat and lightning continue to threaten the region.

Danny Mercer, a fire weather forecaster for the National Weather Service in Portland, said a new round of thunderstorms late Sunday could rumble up from the south into the south-central part of the state.

"It could get real nasty at first, with lightning and high winds," Mercer said. "But the model forecasts are showing that these storms may bring with them a lot of rain."

Mercer said the threat of thunderstorms along the spine of the Cascades will continue into Wednesday and possibly Thursday.

Although 16 of the Northwest's 17 largest fires are in Oregon, regional officials have made the lone Washington state fire their top priority, diverting air tanker flights to dump fire retardant and preparing to reassign crews if necessary.

The Deer Point fire near Lake Chelan, north of Wenatchee in eastern Washington, became the region's top priority because it threatens 250 homes, said Widmark, the fire coordination center spokesman.

Many of the threatened residences are upscale vacation homes, he said. One home was destroyed Sunday.

The coordinating center opens when large forest fires break out in the region. Operated by nine state and federal agencies, the center decides which fires in Oregon and Washington get top priority and assigns resources accordingly.

Firefighting priorities are decided based on a fire's potential to hurt people, destroy communities and harm commercial, historical and cultural resources, Widmark said.

The Deer Point blaze was started by a campfire, and the Tool Box and the Winter fires, which occurred in what signposts call "Oregon Outback" country, were caused by lightning strikes.

Lightning ignited drought-stressed sage and juniper, which flashed into the heavier stands of ponderosa pine.

In some cases, the fires have provided some benefit by thinning smaller trees and killing brush, said John Zapell, a U.S. Forest Service spokesman.

In other spots, however, including several key drainages, the fire burned hot and fast, torching trees into their crowns and taking even the largest ponderosa pines.

Dylan Rivera of The Oregonian contributed to this report


TOPICS: Breaking News
KEYWORDS: christines; clintoonlegacy; definefire; ecoterrorism; ecoterrorkitzhaber; fireecoterrorism; firesfromgreens; greenfireagendas; greenkitzhaber; removehumans; romeoregonburning; ruralcleansing
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To: Grampa Dave
Unbelievable sat picture. Devastation readily seen from space.

Way to go greenie's.

21 posted on 07/22/2002 10:24:11 AM PDT by BOBTHENAILER
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To: Grampa Dave


22 posted on 07/22/2002 10:37:43 AM PDT by EBUCK
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To: BOBTHENAILER
The smoke from these fires was so thick in this mornings NOAH picture, I thought that it was coastal clouds and possible rain clouds over the Kali/Oregon border from the Ocean to about 250 miles east. The Biscuit Fire, #1 on this map is out of control and in the Siskiyou Wilderness/National Forest Area. This is the prime jewel of the Oregon Enviral Druid Fascists. They have been closing roads in that area for 8 years and not allowing any clearance of dead trees, brush and flameable brush. The mediots and fire people are keeping this fire as a result of the eco facist purification agenda under wraps.


23 posted on 07/22/2002 10:52:46 AM PDT by Grampa Dave
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To: All
Courtesy of EBUCK:

THE PEOPLE OF OREGON, CRITTERS, BIRDS AND FISH SAY "GO TO HELL YOU ECO TERRORISTS!"

24 posted on 07/22/2002 10:56:52 AM PDT by Grampa Dave
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To: madfly
BTTT!!!!!
25 posted on 07/22/2002 11:03:29 AM PDT by E.G.C.
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To: Grampa Dave
, and the Fire Season still has four months to go in the mountains!
26 posted on 07/22/2002 11:04:06 AM PDT by B4Ranch
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To: B4Ranch
Where you live, you may need to have permanent OBA's attached to be able to breath when most of Kali, Nevada and Oregon burn. The smoke seems to drift and settle in your area.

A lot people don't realize that these fires in Oregon are early and that the fire season goes down Kali in late Aug/Sep to the LA area and then goes east to NM until the winter rains come.

The high desert mountains can have fires until the snow season.
27 posted on 07/22/2002 11:15:38 AM PDT by Grampa Dave
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Comment #28 Removed by Moderator

To: Grampa Dave
The mediots and fire people are keeping this fire as a result of the eco facist purification agenda under wraps.

Not here they aren't. I've been emailing all my non-freeper friends, links to these and other articles, in order to spread the word of enviro complicity in these avoidable tragedies.

29 posted on 07/22/2002 11:24:47 AM PDT by BOBTHENAILER
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To: Grampa Dave
I don't thnk the Sierra Club is going to retain too many members from Oregon or Nevada.
30 posted on 07/22/2002 11:38:01 AM PDT by B4Ranch
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To: Grampa Dave; EBUCK
You are both right on! These fires must be laid right at the feet of the enviro-wackos. Since they took over power in deciding forest policy, our forests have systematically been destroyed by fire, mismanagement and wrong-headed government policies.
31 posted on 07/22/2002 11:49:32 AM PDT by holyscroller
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To: Grampa Dave
Oregon Fires: Heat, dryness, lightning, wind fuel wildfire flames

That headline needs some work:

Oregon Fires: Heat, dryness, lightning, wind, decades of mismanagement and environmentalist opposition to remedial actions fuel wildfire flames

Much better!

32 posted on 07/22/2002 11:54:09 AM PDT by dirtboy
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To: EBUCK; All
Guess I need to find another free image host....Anyone got any ideas?

EBUCK

33 posted on 07/22/2002 11:55:52 AM PDT by EBUCK
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To: B4Ranch
The problem with Oregon are the enviral centers of Portland, Eugene, Ashland and other university towns.

The Club Sierra and Green Eco Terrorists will still be held in high esteem in those areas. These news blackouts or semiblackouts re the fires happened just in time for the weekend. Probably 80% of the Druid population in Portland knows little of these fires. If they do, they are blaming global warming, GW, Cheney, Enron and something else.
34 posted on 07/22/2002 11:56:19 AM PDT by Grampa Dave
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To: dirtboy; EBUCK; WaterDragon
We like your headline better: Oregon Fires: Heat, dryness, lightning, wind, decades of mismanagement and environmentalist opposition to remedial actions fuel wildfire flames.

The problem is that if anyone working for Oregon Live, aka the Oregonian wrote your headline, they would be fired and probably dropped into the middle of a live fire zone.

As Ebuck pointed out in another reply, the Oregon mediots have been in bed and doing the full Monica with the NW enviralists for over 2 decades.

They have lied and spiked the real stories since the first days of the Spotted Owl Rural Cleansing got started.

All mediots in Oregon are probably life long Club Sierra and some really whack enviral organization card carriers since they were in college or the last 2 decades. They are incapable of printing the truth when it comes to the evil done by the Druid Greens.

35 posted on 07/22/2002 12:06:32 PM PDT by Grampa Dave
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To: Grampa Dave

EBUCK

36 posted on 07/22/2002 12:28:27 PM PDT by EBUCK
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To: Grampa Dave
How close is the fire to Grants Pass? My Dad just moved up from LA.
37 posted on 07/22/2002 1:43:22 PM PDT by jaz.357
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To: Grampa Dave; EBUCK
Hey, tell me where I can find a bumper sticker saying that the enviro whackos and the Democrats are destroying the West with yearly fires with their forestry policies?
38 posted on 07/22/2002 1:48:08 PM PDT by WaterDragon
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To: WaterDragon
I'm looking into printing a few out. I'll sell them at cost. If I generate enough interest in the one above I'll use it but I'm open to suggestions.

EBUCK

39 posted on 07/22/2002 1:50:01 PM PDT by EBUCK
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To: jaz.357

Pretty close (lower left near 199)...better give him a call to see how he's doin.

EBUCK

40 posted on 07/22/2002 1:54:01 PM PDT by EBUCK
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