Fires burning on more than 260,000 acres across Oregon

Oregon Live/ AP ^ | 07/28/2002 | AP

[AuntB]

That picture looks like clear skies compared to my view. I'm about a mile from the foot hills and cannot see them. Ash is everywhere. The closest fire (that I'm aware of) is about 15 to 20 miles away. I'm probably in the safest rural property in Oregon, but TOO many are not that fortunate. Until yesterday we kept seeing flocks of crows and every other bird trying to find clean air. Today I've not seen a living creature. I can't tell you how angry I am. I wish Tom Daschle were here just so I could slap him.:<)

[RedBloodedAmerican]

It would much easier to kick Tommy in the teeth than to bend over and slap him there. Logistics and all that stuff.

[Scott from the Left Coast]

Well, according the Greenies, none of this would have ever happened if we hadn't allowed big-mega-corps to build and sell Suburbans in the first place!

I guess I'll have to do my part to help you guys out in Oregon next winter by coming down to Mt. Bachelor again to ski. Such an effort, such a sacrifice...but I'm up to it.

[gcraig]

Eventually, most insurance companies may not write normal homeowners policies for those who live around a forest or in so called wild lands.

When I was in CO fighting the Hayman fire with the NC Air Guard (my unit), I read in the paper that the local insurance companies were doing exactly this.

[Archie Bunker on steroids]

Aunt B - You may believe you're on a safe piece of property, but you'd be surprise what can ignite & spread. Saty safe & hope for cooler nights - no rain in the forecast.

[Dog Gone]

HAPPY CAMP, Calif. (AP) -- A fire engine fighting wildfires in the Klamath National Forest tumbled 800 feet off a steep, dirt road into a ravine Sunday, killing three firefighters, officials said.

Two others survived the plunge and were airlifted to the Mercy Medical Center in Redding, Ca., said Brian Harris, a the U.S. Forest Service spokesman.

Their conditions were not known. The dead, ages 51, 29 and 19, included two men and a woman.

The crew was helping with a 500-acre backfire set to help contain another 1,350-acre fire 10 miles south of this northern California town when one wheel went off the narrow gravel road and the truck rolled off a steep ravine at about 1:30 a.m., Harris said.

``Indications are they rolled in the worst possible place. It's safe to say they rolled the entire 800 feet,'' over rocky and partially wooded terrain, Harris said.

Meanwhile, in west-central Oregon, firefighters ordered the evacuation of the 4,000-5,000 people after stiff wind fanned a 3,300-acre fire near a subdivision just west of Sisters.

Wind was causing spot fires in and around the Black Butte Ranch resort, where one home was reported burned. The complex is made up of two golf courses, a lodge, about 1,300 homes, not all of which are occupied year-round.

Black Butte general manager Loy Helmley said it would be a few days before residents can return. The Red Cross was setting up evacuation centers.

A sprawling wildfire near the Columbia River port town of The Dalles singed another 3,000 acres overnight and burned to within inches of some buildings but had not destroyed any homes by Sunday.

``The fire is continuing to pose serious control problems,'' as gusty winds periodically kick up the flames, said Peg Foster, an Oregon Department of Forestry spokeswoman.

Crews had the fire about 55 percent contained, she said. Residents of 250 homes have been urged to evacuate since the lightning-started fire flared Thursday.

Stiff winds whistling through the Columbia River Gorge pushed the fire toward high-tension electrical wires overnight, Foster said.

The wires were still live Sunday, but if carbon-rich smoke thickens around the cables, it could cause the electricity to arc, endangering firefighters. If that danger intensifies, she said, authorities might switch them off and reroute power.

In California's Sierra Nevada, a blaze in and around Giant Sequoia National Monument had grown to 66,000 acres Sunday, after burning an additional 1,600 acres during the night.

The ancient sequoia trees weren't completely safe but firefighters had minimized the threat, said fire information officer Jill Slater.

``They're really getting a handle on it,'' she said.

The wildfire was 30 percent contained.

A woman was arraigned Friday on charges of starting the fire, about 130 miles north of Los Angeles, while cooking over an illegal campfire.

Thirty-one major fires still active on Sunday around the West and in Alaska had burned about 491,000 acres, the National Interagency Fire Center reported.

[Crispy]

I wish Daschle was our Senator so maybe we could prevent this in the future.[/sarcasm]

[Brad’s Gramma]

I have 2 brothers, one more conservative than we are...and a liberal hardcore tree hugger. The "good" one is buying one of those bumper stickers that I led him to, due to one of your threads, and at Christmas time, stick it on the other brother's car. HAR!

[Grampa Dave]

Ask her about the 12 firefighters killed this year fighting fires that probably wouldn't burned if not the the enviral agenda.

Watch her eyes glass over and then some mantras will come out of her mouth, or she will blame you, me, and other conservatives.

[Grampa Dave]

Thanks, I didn't see this until I posted it to my newest thread: (Wildfire News Fires burning on more than 272,000 acres across )

Twelve fire fighters have lost their lives fighting the Druid agenda fires in this season so far.

[Grampa Dave]

Thanks for this excellent reply. I have a little on this fire on today's Oregon/Kali fire thread: (Wildfire News Fires burning on more than 272,000 acres across )

[Grampa Dave]

Thanks for the feedback re the local insurance companies in Colorado not issuing homeowners policies in the potential fire areas.

I really think that this is one of the hidden agendas of the enviral whackos with this fire as a rural cleansing tool.

Nic can you find us any info on the insurance companies in Colorado not issuing insurance policies to those in and around forests?

[Carry_Okie]

What is truly obnoxious about insurance against fire hazards is that the insurer does NOTHING to assess the risk and price it according to the way the owner manages that risk. If there were an economic advantage to good forest management and a penalty to pay for its converse, more people would do it. Part of that problem is how insurance is regulated at the State level.

[Grampa Dave]

Remember that Chamber of Commerce reply last week by one of the Oregon Freepers in Medford that there really was no real smoke problem in the Medford/Grants Pass area?

Truth in posting should be required of some posters on FR.

A few years ago every Friday, we had an arsonist who started fires east of here in the late afternoon. If we had our normal evening SES breeze, I had to wear the dust masks from ACE hardware just to breath.

The bastard was never caught, but the fires stopped. A theory was that someone caught him, and he was no longer capable of starting fires.

[Grampa Dave]

There needs to be a look at what is being done or not done in the area where the person lives, and then what has that person done to fire proof his/her property. It should be on a home by home situation. The insurance company should send someone out to check on each home before fire season starts to see what the homeowner has or has not done.

Reduced premiums or increased premiums would start to have an effect on fire proofing like you have done around your home. If enough homes get cancelled insurance policies due to a local or state green agendas, all hell would break loose and force changes in the druid pro fire agendas.

[Paulus Invictus]

I suggest that we forcibly draft all of the envirowhacos, including the whole Sierra Club, their legal fund, their donors, and Robert Redford and his ilk, to fight these fires and stay on the job until they get the message. I would love to see that happen, but am not holding my breath. Have you noticed how quiet the huggers are these days? They are scum!

[Carry_Okie]

There needs to be a look at what is being done or not done in the area where the person lives, and then what has that person done to fire proof his/her property. It should be on a home by home situation. The insurance company should send someone out to check on each home before fire season starts to see what the homeowner has or has not done.

There is exactly such a proposal (albeit more detailed) here. Retired firefighters are perfect for the job.

Reduced premiums or increased premiums would start to have an effect on fire proofing like you have done around your home. If enough homes get cancelled insurance policies due to a local or state green agendas, all hell would break loose and force changes in the druid pro fire agendas.

Unfortunately, when policies are canceled, most people blame the insurer, not the green agenda. They just don't make the connection. Insurers have been hiding behind state regulation, just like everybody else.

[Grampa Dave]

Actually, they are not quiet in Kali.

Barbara Boxer is leading a campaign to add 2.5 millions acres or some outrageous amount of land to become new wilderness land. Then, that 2.5 million acres will become a disaster waiting to burn with no roads, no thinning of trees, no harvesting of even dead trees and no removal of brush. In a few years that 2.5 million acres will become a tinder box every summer in our dry Kali summers.

The enviralists never give up. They and their fellow rats work 24/7 to destroy America and make it a watermelon country.

What I'm seeing is the moderate and so called conservative greens starting to question what the hell is going on. If we can get those people to question the Green Agenda and wake up to smell the Green Bravo Sierra spread for decades, we will start to win.

It took two decades to get to this point, and it will take about 2 decades to reverse the Green Agendas.

[Paulus Invictus]

I hope it doesn't take two decades. The West will be a desert and there will be no trees left if they don't clear the fuel and soon.

One big fire near here in Utah is still burning away, but the worst is yet to come with thousands of dried out, beetle- destroyed acres of trees waiting for a lightning strike or a Fed Agency arsonist to start it. Many of these trees are in a National Monument.

My biggest fear is that the Forest Service and the Park Service have bought the enviro's ideas 100% and spend public cash to publicize them. Three more firemen were killed yesterday in Oregon. Are they considered expendable, by the greens, to allow the forest critters to continue to live? The sheer idiocy of politicians and the whacos is unbearable!

I've written to my Reps and Senators about this, but no action is detected from them.

[Grampa Dave]

I think when this horrible burning and killing season is over due to the agendas of the Green Jihadists, we will see massive changes in the forestry management system.

However, it will take 2 decades to reverse all of the Green Jihadists bad science and anti human agendas foisted on us for two decades. Most of the Clintoonian pink panty wearing Florist Service people should be fired from the Forestry Service. However, how do you fire government civil service scum bags?

Here is the latest thread on the fire and it has the unfortunate deaths of the firefighters in California. (link to latest wildfire thread re Oregon/California)

Please do us a favor and post updates on Utah fires and the intermountain fires on these Oregon/California wildfire threads.