Wildfire News Fires burning on more than 272,000 acres across Oregon

Oregon Live/ AP ^ | 7/29/2002 | The Associated Press

[Grampa Dave]

Wildfire News Fires burning on more than 272,000 acres across Oregon

The Associated Press 7/29/02 1:03 AM

Major wildfires were burning on 272,422 acres in Oregon on Sunday. About 12,503 firefighters are working in the state. The Northwest Interagency Communication Center is tracking at least 15 major fires in Oregon. Top priorities for fire officials were the Cache Mountain fire, Sheldon Ridge fire and Biscuit-Florence-Sour fire.

WHITE RIVER

Started: 7/23/02, one mile east of Maupin

Size: 25,000 acres

Containment: 95 percent.

Evacuations: mandatory evacuation of White River campground 7/24/02; Bake Oven Road and Buckhollow Road reopened, 7/27/02. Lower Deschutes River now open.

Damage: Unknown.

On scene: 140 people

Cause: Lightning strikes

Threatened: 100 homes, 50 business, 200 outbuildings

SKUNK FIRE:

Started: 7/24/2002, Klamath County, north of Sprague River.

Size: 2,400 acres

Evacuations: Moccasin Hill and Klamath Forest Estates subdivisions

Damage: 50 homes, 5 business, 30 outbuildings threatened, one outbuilding destroyed.

Containment: 70 percent containment.

On scene: 506 people.

Cause: Lightning strikes.

SWAMP CREEK

Started 7/24/02, 4 miles northwest of Diamond.

Size: 320 acres.

Containment: 100 percent.

Evacuations: Threatened resources include Diamond Craters Research Natural Area, scattered outbuildings, ranches and livestock.

Damage: Unknown so far.

On scene: 48 people.

Cause: Lightning strikes.

CACHE MOUNTAIN:

Started: 7/24/02, 15 miles northwest of Sisters, Oregon

Size: 3,700 acres.

Containment: 25 percent.

Evacuations: Camp Tamarack, mandatory evacuation. 7/25/02.

Damage: Fire has spread to Weyerhaeuser land. 7/25/02.

On scene: 459 firefighters.

Cause: Lightning.

Evacuation: full evacuation of Black Butte Ranch, about 4,000 people. Two houses burned. Highway 20 closed between Santiam Pass and Sisters.

SHELDON RIDGE:

Started: 7/24/02, 3 miles southwest of The Dalles.

Size: 12,117 acres

Containment: 60 percent

Evacuations: Voluntary evacuation of at least 250 homes.

Damage: Two outbuildings destroyed, one home damaged.

On scene: 428 firefigters, 125 Oregon National Guard troops.

Cause: Lightning.

WINTER-TOOLBOX FIRES

Started: in Lake County 07/12/02 and merged 7/20/02.

Size: 35,233 (both fires combined)

Containment: 85 percent (Toolbox); 55 percent (Winter)

Evacuations: Voluntary evacuations of 85 homes.

Damage: None reported.

On scene: 1,487 (both fires combined)

Cause: Lightning.

EYERLY COMPLEX

Started: 15 miles NE of Camp Sherman, 07/09/02.

Size: 23,573 acres.

Containment: 100 percent.

Evacuations: 280 homes asked to voluntarily evacuate last week.

Damage: 18 houses destroyed.

On scene: 949 firefighters.

Cause: Lightning.

MALHEUR COMPLEX

Started: 8-25 miles from Prairie City, 07/12/02.

Size: 24,100 acres.

Containment: 30 percent.

Evacuations: No mandatory evacuation, but 52 residences and 13 commercial properties and 196 outbuildings are threatened. A historic home, Austin House, is 4 miles from the fire.

Damage: None.

On scene: 1,752 firefighters

Cause: Lightning

TILLER COMPLEX

Started: Outside Tiller, east of Canyonville off Interstate 5, 07/12/02.

Size: 15,092 acres.

Containment: 25 percent

Evacuations: South Umpqua Road closed at milepost 6. Five homes in Ash Valley threatened. Tribal ceremonial grounds and critical cultural resources are threatened.

Damage: No listed damage.

On scene: 1,363 firefighters

Cause: Lightning.

NORTH UMPQUA COMPLEX

Started: 25 miles east of Glide, 07/12/02.

Size: 1,278 acres.

Containment: 50 percent.

Evacuations: 20 residences threatened, one business and 10 outbuildings. Historical resources, cultural sites threatened.

Damage: None.

On Scene: 613 firefighters.

Cause: Lightning.

MONUMENT FIRE

Started: 9 miles southwest of Unity, 07/12/02

Size: 24,046 acres

Containment: 70 percent.

Evacuations: 75 residences threatened, plus five commercial buildings and ten outbuildings.

Damage: Major power outages 7/25/02. Severe damage to computers and data management at fire camp.

On Scene: 1,283 firefighters, military battalion from Topeka, Kansas in place.

Cause: Lightning.

747/MURRAY COMPLEX

Started: Northeast of Paulina in Black Canyon Wilderness, 07/13/22.

Size: 11,739 acres

Containment: 50 percent.

Evacuations: No evacuations; Four homes and eight outbuildings threatened.

Damage: Road closures.

On scene: 906 firefighters.

Cause: Lightning.

BISCUIT-FLORENCE-SOUR BISCUIT COMPLEX

Started: 17 miles southwest of Cave Junction, 07/13/02.

Size: 31,000 acres

Containment: 5 percent.

Evacuations: Threatened resources are 13 private residences, 36 outbuildings of Oak Flats. Fire jumped the Illinois River 7/25/02. Cloud cover on 7/26/02 prevented airborne attacks.

Damage: 3 residences and 8 outbuildings..

On scene: 863 firefighters.

Cause: Lightning.

TIMBERED ROCK FIRE

Started: Unknown. 20 miles north of Medford.

Size: 9,000 acres

Containment: 10 percent

Evacuations: None

Damage: None

On Scene: 422 firefighters

Cause: lightning

----

Source: The Northwest Interagency Coordination Center

[Grampa Dave]

The total acreage gets bigger each day. Specific reports will be posted in the replies in this thread.

[Grampa Dave]

Fyi.

If you have any later news, please post it,

[Grampa Dave]

Fyi and for your ping lists, thanks

[Grampa Dave]

Fyi

[Grampa Dave]

FYI.

If you have any more specific data today, please post it on this threa.

[Grampa Dave]

So how is the host of burning Oregon doing with all the guests that you are responsible for insuring a safe night's rest and at least 3 meals and a gallon of water each day?

[Grampa Dave]

From the Oregonian via Oregon live:

» More From The Oregonian

News


Burgeoning wildfire moves into Black Butte Ranch

07/29/02

JOSEPH ROSE

As many as 5,000 people fled the Central Oregon resort community of Black Butte Ranch on Sunday after a wildfire suddenly exploded into the complex and destroyed two homes.


Many of the residents and visitors who left via smoke-inundated U.S. 20 started the day golfing, swimming and horseback riding. By late Sunday afternoon, the stiff, erratic winds had doubled the size of the five-day-old Cache Mountain blaze to 3,700 acres and pushed it into the northwest corner of the popular summer resort.

Deschutes County Sheriff Les Stiles said hundreds of fires were burning on the ranch Sunday night, but most were confined to trees and bushes on the west side. Many of the 459 firefighters working the blaze were hitting spot fires and putting them out as quickly as they could, he said.

Fire engines from departments throughout Central Oregon were stationed at threatened houses. Gov. John Kitzhaber invoked the Conflagration Act, which allows firefighters to be sent from other regions to help.

Shortly after 3 p.m., the flames jumped a road and threw spot fires into the resort's Golf Homes section, wedged between the Big Meadow Golf Course and the Deschutes National Forest's tall ponderosa pines. The fire destroyed Golf Homes 96 and 97 on Fiddleneck Lane, leaving nothing but their chimneys standing.

Initially the order was to evacuate only the Golf Homes section of the combination resort-residential subdivision, but the Deschutes County sheriff's department then ordered all of the resort's visitors and residents out about 4:30 p.m.

At 7 p.m., ranch manager Loy Helmly stood in the resort's three-story glass, fir and pine lodge, watching firefighting helicopters lower 50,000-gallon buckets into the lake outside before disappearing into the smoke.

Transportation officials closed U.S. 20 between Santiam Junction and west of Sisters to keep traffic away from the blaze as firetrucks raced to the resort.

Lisa Clark of the Central Oregon Interagency Dispatch Center said the Cache Mountain fire had replaced the Sheldon Ridge blaze near The Dalles as the state's most worrisome. Officials were in the process of redirecting more firefighters and equipment to Sisters.

"We have to determine what (the Cache Mountain's) needs are first," she said. "We're a little surprised" by how quickly it blew up.

Helmly was also astonished. Although wildfires had threatened the 1,830-acre resort in the past, none had done any worse than throw ash and smoke. And, he said, U.S. Forest Service crews regularly clear the resort, including a lane in the northwest corner, of dry underbrush, dead trees and other wildfire fuels.

"I can't say what happened exactly," Helmly said. "It happened quickly, and the fire is still very active."

[Grampa Dave]

Firefighters Killed in Rollover in Klamath National Forest, California

07/28/2002

By ANDREW KRAMER, Associated Press Writer


Three firefighters died Sunday when the engine truck they were riding in rolled off a steep, dirt Forest Service road in the Klamath National Forest and tumbled about 800 feet into a ravine, fire officials said.


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


The five firefighters were returning from the 620-acre Stanza fire near Happy Camp in Northern California near the Oregon border at about 2 a.m., he said.


"It was a dirt road, very steep and has a drop-off in places up to 800 feet," 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, he said.


The Siskiyou County Sheriff's Office is investigating the crash on Elk Creek Road, a U.S. Forest Service route.


"We don't have information yet on why it happened," Harris said.


The about 400 firefighters working the Stanza fires retreated from the lines Sunday into a "safety stand down," and let the blaze burn unchecked, Harris said. No homes were threatened.


"It's a terribly tragic situation. All our sympathies go out to the families," he said.


The deaths brought to 12 the number of wildland firefighters who have killed fighting blazes in the West this summer.


A air tanker crashed last week while beginning a dump of slurry, killing two pilots in Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado. A similar accident in Northern California last month killed three people on board a tanker.


An Oregon firefighter died while cutting down fire-damaged trees in Colorado when he was hit on the back of the head by a tree that looked healthy but apparently had its roots burned away.


Five firefighters died in June when their van rolled four times on the freeway en route to the Hayman fire in Colorado. Six others were injured in that crash.


(Copyright 2002 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

---

Does anyone have any questions or doubts that the agendas of the Eco Fascists can kill or seriously injure innocent Americans?

I can't comment on this, or I would be given a time out by those who manage Free Republic.

[Grampa Dave]

Ooops forgot to list you in my previous replies to this thread.

[Grampa Dave]

Latest Large Wildfire, National map:

[Grampa Dave]

The latest NOAA image of the fires:

[BOBTHENAILER]

The deaths brought to 12 the number of wildland firefighters who have killed fighting blazes in the West this summer.

Thanks for the tragic Ping. These rotten SOB's will continue their "Devil May Care" stance, in spite of the continuing devastation and the tragic and fatal results of their selfish, idiotic, destructive and counterproductive policies.

All green whackos should be force marched naked to the front lines of each of these fires, and given a shovel and told to get to friggin' work fixing the damage they are in large part responsible for.

Anybody wanna bet the road these brave firefighters went off was crude and unsafe?

[Grampa Dave]

The deaths brought to 12 the number of wildland firefighters who have killed fighting blazes in the West this summer.


A air tanker crashed last week while beginning a dump of slurry, killing two pilots in Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado. A similar accident in Northern California last month killed three people on board a tanker.


An Oregon firefighter died while cutting down fire-damaged trees in Colorado when he was hit on the back of the head by a tree that looked healthy but apparently had its roots burned away.


Five firefighters died in June when their van rolled four times on the freeway en route to the Hayman fire in Colorado. Six others were injured in that crash.

---

This is the first article that has totalled the number of fire fighters killed.

Our perverted maggot infested fishwraps in Kali will have so PC/diversity driven story on the front page and bury these KIA stories of our fire fighters.

I have pinged Tubebender to ask him is this was the main road to and from Happy Camp where this happened or one of the secondary roads.

The main road was scary enough. I haven't been on it since the druids started messing with their agendas that create tinder boxes. This was one of their first tinder box areas in Kali.

[Grampa Dave]

You might want to go this link by our great Freeper Photo producer, Diogenesis: (link to fire photos around the world including Oregon and Kali)

Diogenesis as usual, a great job.

[tubebender]

These firefighters were from the Redding Area...very very sad. They were off hiway I believe.One of my former employees is now a woodlands firefighter. I'll try to find out where he is today. I'll be gone today so will check in tonite. Just heard on the radio that hiway 199 from Crecent City to Grants Pass is closed due to a out of control fire that is threatening Gasquet and Hiouche Ca.

[cake_crumb]

Darn. You have my prayers. As far as I can find rain is expected any time soon.

I was using Google to find an ecard for my brother's birthday today. I clicked on one calle Care2.com, or something like that. It turned out to be an envirowacko site. There was a huge banner ad at the top of the page, saying "Trees Can't Scream, help save our forests"...the first thing that ran through my mind was Oregon. The second was that over 3,000,000 acres have burned so far this year. Nope; trees CAN'T scream...not even when they're on fire, and it was wackos like THAT who gave us the conditions which led up to this hellish wildfire season in the first place. In 'saving' our forests, they've condemned those forests to ash and charcoal.

I didn't use one of their ecards. I did nastygram them, though, saying basically what I just stated above.

[EBUCK]

No later news but I'm back from enjoying a non-burning area of the State, a river!(my legs are so burnt!)
Sticker orders are up to 95. I've gotten payment for 20 of them so far. Should have the printer started by mid-week and stickers should be delivered by the end of next week, give or take a few days.

EBUCK

[EBUCK]

I did nastygram them..

If they get beligerant you can always esclate to the Fah-qu-Gram. (for emergencies only)LOL

EBUCK

[Grampa Dave]

These firefighters were from the Redding Area...very very sad. They were off hiway I believe.One of my former employees is now a woodlands firefighter. I'll try to find out where he is today. I'll be gone today so will check in tonite.

Just heard on the radio that hiway 199 from Crecent City to Grants Pass is closed due to a out of control fire that is threatening Gasquet and Hiouche Ca. ============================================================

To those not familiar with this area: This is the beautiful area along the Smith River, maybe the most beautiful river in Oregon/Califonia. Gasquet and Hiouche are two little hamlets on this road.

The enviral whackos would love to close this road, burn out these two hamlets and other people along this part of the river. Then, it can become part of their great no human Druid Cathedral from the Rogue River to the Illinois River, and south through this area for about 40 miles.

Archie, stay safe up in the Cave Junction area and watch out for your back door in this area.

[Grampa Dave]

I didn't see your posts on this tragic story until after I put it on this thread.

Tubebender lives in Eureka and will try to get specifics for us and post them this evening or tonight.