Lightning Ignites New Fires in Central Oregon

KGW TV ^ | 24 July | AP & KGW Staff

[Grampa Dave]

Lightning Ignites New Fires in Central Oregon 07/24/2002

By AP and KGW Staff

Nearly 1,000 lightning strikes hit central Oregon yesterday afternoon and last night igniting several new fires across the state.

Firefighters are now chasing the new wildfires, including one that has prompted the voluntary evacuation of campgrounds on Suttle and Blue lakes northwest of Sisters.

Heavy lift helicopters are set to begin attacking the Cache Mountain fire this morning, said David Widmark, spokesman for the Northwest Interagency Coodination Center in Portland.

Smoke billows skyward and spreads east near Summer Lake, Ore., Tuesday. (AP Photo)

The Cache Mountain fire has now burned about 105 acres in the Deschutes National Forest about 15 miles from Sisters.

"This lightning storm really hit central Oregon," said Kelly Jerzykowski, manager at the Central Oregon Interagency Dispatch Center. "We continue to hit these fires aggressively, but resources are tired and spread thin at this point."

The Cache Mountain fire caused campers at the Methodist camps on Suttle Lake and campgrounds and a private resort on Blue Lake to voluntarily leave the area. It isn't immediately known how many campers are affected.

Widmark said the lightning storms moved through the Cascades and up the Columbia River Gorge all the way to the Blue Mountains. They had lightning but very little moisture.

Lightning also started an 80-acre fire south of the Black Canyon Wilderness, near the much larger 747 Fire.

“We’re just trying to pace ourselves,” said Widmark. “We still have about another six to eight weeks of the fire season left."

Winter - Toolbox Fire

Members of the Oregon National Guard's 116th Cavalry, from Pendleton, Ore., mop up scorched land near Summer Lake. (AP Photo) In south central Oregon, a total of 289 members of the 3-116 Cavalry based in La Grande and the 82nd Cavalry based in Bend have been assigned to the Winter Fire, mopping up in burned over areas to free more experienced crews to attack parts of the 34,500-acre fire still burning hot.

Tuesday night a section of the Toolbox Fire, which joined over the weekend with the Winter Fire, blew out and got to within a mile of Oregon Highway 31 at Picture Rock Pass, Oregon Department of Forestry Chris Friend said.

Wearing protective yellow shirts and green pants, 40 members of the Oregon National Guard on Tuesday scanned the charred sagebrush flats and bent to the hot work of rooting out embers.

Armed with shovels, mattocks and pickaxes, the citizen soldiers moved in a line, spaced five yards apart, digging into gray ash and black sagebrush stumps looking for residual embers that could flare up later.

"It kind of reminds me of poking through a minefield," said Staff Sgt. Michael Wicks, 47, of Pendleton, a member of the 3-116 Cavalry based in La Grande. "Get your plastic punji sticks. Everybody on line. Sweep."

Guard Helps Battle

Oregon National Guard 116th Cavalry troops from Pendleton, Ore., mop up scorched land near Summer Lake, Ore., as a complex of three fires continues to burn in the area. (AP Photo)

Trained as tank crews, scouts, mortarmen, medics and truckdrivers in case of war, the guardsmen were called up by Gov. John Kitzhaber to battle one of the 18 wildfires burning a total of 200,000 acres across the state, stretching the nation's firefighting resources.

"That's where the need is," said Capt. Alex Simshaw, commander of the taskforce. "What we're trying to do is protect the houses if it flares back up."

Last week, a lighting strike ignited the Winter Fire at the base of Winter Ridge. The flames spread through the narrow band of flat land between the steep rock slope and the alkali flats of Summer Lake. Sixty houses were threatened, but none was lost, although some barns and shop buildings burned.

The guardsmen were sent to the north edge of Summer Lake because a crew with infrared gear had found heat in the earth, said crew chief Roland Cababag, a member of the Toledo Fire Department attached to the Oregon Department of Forestry for the summer.

Before setting the guardsmen to their task, he demonstrated the finer points of mop-up with his shovel.

"When you get in stumps like this, dig it out -- get down in these a little bit -- then get in there with your bare hand, gently," Cababag said. "You should be able to touch cold dirt with your bare hand."

While the guardsmen chopped at the earth, twin-rotored Chinook helicopters flew overhead bearing 1,000-gallon buckets of water to a flare-up on the far side of the ridge. As the line moved slowly through the black expanse, guardsmen called out warnings of helicopters flying overhead and reminders to drink water.

Back in fire camp in Paisley, 50 miles south of Summer Lake, guardsmen waiting their turn on the fire lines traded home remedies against the mosquitoes. To ward off mosquitoes, some people eat a match head a day to give off an odor of sulfur, and others swear by chili peppers, Simshaw said.

"I've always been a firm believer in bug spray," he said. "Overall, the mosquitoes are not that bad. There's only a few of the guys they seem to like."

On their way to the fire, some members of the 3-116th Cavalry stopped off at store and bought two-way miniature radios that look like cell phone, so they can keep in touch with buddies stretched out on the fire line, and backpack water bags to keep hydrated in the dry heat.

"Things to keep the comfort level up," said Wicks as he paused to look at the blackened ground sweeping up to the rocky face of Winter Ridge.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Online at: http://www.kgw.com/news-local/stories/kgw_0724_news_wildfires_roundup.1f701f8b.html

[Salvation]

LOL at all the notations (keywords) on the side of the page. You really don't like the Greens or Kitzhopper do you?

[Salvation]

From katu.com

Lightning Strikes Spark More Fires

PORTLAND - Nearly one-thousand lightning strikes hit central Oregon yesterday afternoon and last night. Firefighters are chasing multiple new wildfires, including one that has prompted the voluntary evacuation of campgrounds on Suttle and Blue lakes northwest of Sisters.

David Widmark, spokesman for the Northwest Interagency Coodination Center in Portland, says heavy lift helicopters are set to begin attacking the Cache Mountain fire this morning. It's now burned about 105 acres and is located on the Deschutes National Forest about 15 miles from Sisters.

The Cache Mountain fire caused campers at the Methodist camps on Suttle Lake and campgrounds and a private resort on Blue Lake to voluntarily leave the area. It isn't immediately known how many campers are affected.

Widmark says the lightning storms moved through the Cascades and up the Columbia River Gorge all the way to the Blue Mountains. They had lightning but very little moisture.

Lightning also started an 80-acre fire south of the Black Canyon Wilderness, near the much larger 747 Fire.

[Salvation]

View from Space of the Eyerly fire, 747 fire

A button will appear in the lower right corner. Click on it to make the map larger.

[Salvation]

Sorry, I did not realize you had already posted the map. Oh, well, we can click on the link and get an expanded view of the destruction caused by the envirowackos.

[f.Christian]

bttt

[headsonpikes]

You're a great poster, Gramps!

I love your Keywords! LOL!

Never give up! Stop Rural Cleansing!

[Grampa Dave]

Re me not liking the greens and their poster boy Oregon governor, Kitznslobber:

I can still remember getting into an argument with my sons after they got brained washed 20 years ago in their class rooms that no one had property rights. If Club Sierra or the Greens wanted to seize property and stop jobs for critters, my brain washed sons thought that was great. My wife was half way in their camp and mine.

That started my anti Green feelings, and it has gotten worse with more spotted owl Bravo Sierra actions each year.

Now my sons are in my camp and so is my wife. The final breaking point came during the ONRC and Andy Kerr's attemped rural cleansing of the Klamath Basin farmers, ranchers and those who depend on the farmers/ranchers for their jobs and businesses.

I have seen these tinder box buildups in SW Oregon and N. Kali the last 5-6 years due to no roads, no harvesting of even dead timber and allowing brush to grow without thining or control burns. Places I used to be able to walk to the stream/river and wade in to fly fish are now overgrown with non native blackberries that prevent all but bears from going in and out.

The eco enviralist watermelons are far more dangerous to those of us who live on the West Coast or near a forest than the al Qaeda thugs/terrorists.

The enviralists can harm or kill us with their agendas on a 24/7/365 basis. The al Qaeda thugs/terrorists have to work years to commit an act of terrorism.

I consider every out of control fire a direct result of the agendas of the enviral terrorists of America.

If al Qaeda thugs had set those forests/wild lands on fire, people would be screaming for us to Nuke all IslamaKazi countries. Here in America, the enviral terrorists continue to push their anti America/American agendas 24/7/365.

[Salvation]

If al Qaeda thugs had set those forests/wild lands on fire, people would be screaming for us to Nuke all IslamaKazi countries.

Here in America, the enviral terrorists continue to push their anti America/American agendas 24/7/365.

I'll bump that idea!

[Grampa Dave]

Actually I couldn't find that NOAA map, that you posted when I was looking for it earlier this morning.

Thanks for posting it!

Two days from now we will be able to view the 7 pmish NOAA image of today. Then we can see all of the new fires.

[Grampa Dave]

Thanks for the kind words.

We all need to work on keywords to describe the terrible reality of the Green enviralists and what they have done to our country.

[EBUCK]

green commy commune

Isn't that a tripple negative? LOL.

EBUCK

[John O]

Looks like even God is offended by the watermelons treatment of our woods. He never said he wouldn't destroy us with fire if we went wrong again.

(only slightly tongue in cheek)

God Save America (Please)

[NormsRevenge]

"The Pravda of Portland"

:-)

How's the Eugene area doing? Any hippies or socialists get burned out yet ;-?

[Grampa Dave]

Eugene is Eugene. Most of the anarchists and eco terrorists are on that burn America Tour.

Blackie keeps an eye on these Eugene eco terrorists for us.

[dixiechick2000]

"...were your family members camped at any of these sites..."

Hi, Gramps! To tell you the truth, I'm not sure where they camped this time. I just know that when they went to town, they went to Sisters once.

[Grampa Dave]

Here is the opportunity for all good Freepers to get into the face of the enviral fascists who have put a large part of our nation into the peril of becoming a flaming tinderbox.

Ebuck has created a great bumpersticker to put the blame on these clymers as we drive our SUV's and pickups. (Link to EBuck's Sticker and how to buy them)

(link to EBuck's Sticker and how to buy them)

[Clive]

do you really think that the enviro-nazis have enough brains to see the irony in that sign?

[Grampa Dave]

The elite enviral fascists are very intelligent, and this will drive them up into stroke danger.

Their sheeple, the Birkenstock wearing, dope smoking, and tied dyed hippies would not understand this.

Also, that sticker will ring with those who can think.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the heads up!

[blackie]

Stop the attacks by the wacko, extreme left-wing, enviro-nazis and media terrorist's on our Freedoms !!

Freedom Is Worth Fighting For !!

Molon Labe !!