Posted on 07/24/2002 7:33:40 AM PDT by 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
This brass balled hypocrisy needs to be pulled out and shoved in little Tommy's face every time he opens his mouth from now on.
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