Fires burning on more than 438,000 acres across Oregon

Here is yesterday evenings NOAA fire maps.

As usual, the Kali Pink Panty Floristry Division of the Forestry service is keep a news lid on the fire that appears to be in the Yreka area and west.

Maybe Marsh2 or Forester can fill us in on the fire and what's happening.

This was written and submitted at 9:39PM last night...thought you might be interested anyway. Winds pick up near SW Oregon fires

From the National Desk
Published 8/2/2002 9:29 PM
View printer-friendly version

SELMA, Ore., Aug. 2 (UPI) -- A window of opportunity closed on firefighters in southwestern Oregon who had to reluctantly halt their ambitious plans Friday to burn out firebreaks in front of two huge wildfires due to the gradually increasing winds.

The combined size of the Florence and Sour Biscuit fires grew to 210,000 acres Friday as "hotshot" crews suspended their series of burns designed to widen 30 miles of fire lines carved out in the Illinois River Valley all the down to the California state line.

"The inversion layer lifted and got people kind of worried because it threw up a lot of new smoke," Fire Information Officer Tom Valluzzi told United Press International. "It showed us enough energy that we still have some healthy respect for this fire."

The entire population of the valley remained on standby to evacuate Friday, although the order to pack up and leave was still pending. Most of the 17,000 residents were staying put in their homes despite the threat that a hasty evacuation would likely cause a horrendous traffic jam on Highway 199, the sole primary road out of the area.

Around 1,800 firefighters have been cutting fire lines since mid-July between the twin blazes and the highway where the small towns of Cave Junction and Selma are located along with numerous other residences.

Light winds during the past couple of days allowed the hotshots to work around the clock burning out underbrush and dead branches in swaths 100 yards to 200 yards wide that will stop the advance of the main fires by robbing them of fresh fuel.

Valluzzi said the increase in winds was attributed to an approaching front that could bring thundershowers to the region early next week, but the major question was whether or not the storms would bring welcome rain or merely dangerous lightning to the parched forest.

"I don't think they are supposed to be dry storms, but you never know," he said. "We're worried about the lightning associated with them."

The National Weather Service said critical overnight humidity readings in southwest Oregon would be "much greater Saturday night with continued cooling into Monday."

"A disturbance will move east across southern Oregon Monday with a slight chance of very light rain," the NWS said in its afternoon forecast.

Fire weather advisories were posted Friday in northern Oregon, parts of Montana and the Great Basin area of Utah and Nevada where dry winds were expected to push 30 miles per hour by Saturday night.

Meanwhile, weather continued to be largely cooperative in Southern California where a stubborn fire east of San Diego was declared 55 percent contained despite growing to 20,950 acres.

Although the mountain town of Julian was considered to be out of danger, firefighters were becoming increasingly concerned that the flames could burn into the Mount Laguna area and the dry, overgrown Cleveland National Forest where it could take off into a major inferno.

Six campgrounds were evacuated Friday and fire crews deployed along S1, also known as Sunrise Highway, to make a stand during the night.

"They are afraid it will come over the national forest boundaries and into the trees and the brush," Fire Information Officer Matt Mireles told UPI. "There are some really heavy, heavy fuel in there."

(Reported by Hil Anderson in Los Angeles)

Sorry about that.

I have the feeling that John Rob is playing around with the server loading new and exciting stuff.

It took forever to load my last reply and the NOAA image didn't make it.

Lets try it again:

I think that the fire management teams are there.

They just don't want to get the public aware that the next side of this miss named Florence Fire will be to the West, the North and SW to the Chetco/Brookings area.

Thanks, here is the 5 day forecast for the Kalmiopsis Wilderness Area: (Link to 5 day weather forecast of the Kalmiopsis Wilderness Area:)"

This is where the fire is burning and most of it is not controllable due to the lack of roads, no timber or brush removal for over a decade.

When you read Florence Fire, just substitute Kalmiopsis Wilderness Area. That way you will know the reality not the Bravo Sierra Naming of this fire by the Floristry Service Maggots inherited from the Clintoonian years.

Auntie or Wanderin, you might want to fill in the recent historical significance of the building in Wanderin's photo of the fire yesterday.

Wanderin, thanks for these great photos. You are becoming our Freeperette photo journalists for this fire.

No you wouldn't want to see That!

KATU photo from last evening of the Illinois Valley Fire.

Here a picture from KGW:

click thumbnails to enlarge...


	Florence fire branch director Richard Nieto, from Albuquerque, N.M., shows on a map of Southwest Oregon's Kalmiopsis Wilderness Area, the newly-designated dividing line for operations of the Florence fire in Agness, Ore., Friday, Aug. 2, 2002. The Florence fire has been divided into east and west operating systems by an 80-mile north-south line all the way to the California border. The Florence and Sour Biscuit fires have burned 200,000 acres since lightning started them two weeks ago. (AP Photo/Don Ryan) - Aug 02 6:31 PM ET

	Danielle Bruner of Grants Pass, Ore., comforts her 2-month-old daughter Camdyn Renee Bruner as a cloud of smoke from a controlled burn fills the air in Kerby, Ore., Friday, Aug. 2, 2002. Fire crews continue fighting the Florence and Sour Biscuit fires in hopes of keeping it away from communities in the Illinois Valley in Southwestern Oregon. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez) - Aug 02 6:24 PM ET

	Trinolyn Davis watches a cloud of smoke from a controlled burnout fill the air in Kerby, Ore., Friday, Aug. 2, 2002. Davis, a resident of Kerby, was moving her possessions out of the town. Fire crews continue fighting the Florence and Sour Biscuit fires in hopes of keeping it away from communities in the Illinois Valley in Southwestern Oregon. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez) - Aug 02 6:28 PM ET

	Rodney Martinez of Spartanburg S.C., a member of the North Carolina 42 fire crew, watches over the road during a burnout operation in the Siskiyou National Forest west of Selma, Ore., Thursday, Aug. 1, 2002. After waiting 48 hours for favorable winds, fire crews finally ignited the burnout, intended to take fuel away from the Florence fire, which has burned 150,000 acres in Southwestern Oregon. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez) - Aug 02 11:31 AM ET

	Smoke from the Florence fire covers the Siskiyou National Forest west of Selma, Ore., Thursday, Aug. 1, 2002. Crews torched brush and other potential fuel Thursday to try to keep two major wildfires from advancing toward homes in a southwestern Oregon valley. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez) - Aug 02 11:31 AM ET

	The Florence fire sends up a large plume of smoke over the Siskiyou National Forest west of Selma, Ore., Thursday, Aug. 1, 2002. Nearly 13,000 firefighters were battling wildfires burning on more than 438,610 acres in Oregon Thursday. Top priority was given to two blazes burning across 186,000 acres in the Siskiyou National Forest, near Selma. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez) - Aug 02 11:31 AM ET

Medford should be smokey as hell too...sigh...

Picture of an innocent 81 year old victim of the al Qaeda Tree Hugging Enviral Illinois River Fire:

Her crime was chosing to live in the Druid Cathedral area of the Illinois River Valley!

The command center is in place at the fairgrounds. There are people on the fire lines. However, the crews that have been "ordered" will be here in the next two or three days. Kury radio information comes from the command center.

An excellent link. Thank you.

ROTFLMAO!!! LOVE the map from NOAA...evidently, prepared by public university graduates working for the goverment, unless somebody ran off with OREGON overnight! Killer stuff...if this is the mentality of the government morons "in charge" of the situation, we're in MORE trouble than we thought!

Here is the first real West Side story and plan of the Wilderness Fire from KGWTV and the AP:

Crews to Attack Fire's West Flank
08/02/2002

By GILLIAN FLACCUS, Associated Press Writer

The Florence wildfire has grown so large that officials Friday drew an imaginary north-south line down the middle of the 80-mile-long blaze and split firefighting duties into two camps about 40 miles apart.

More than 1,200 firefighters and support staff are en route to Gold Beach to operate out of a new command post that will focus on fighting the fire's movement to the north and west.

A fire crew from Keizer, Ore., stays with their truck along U.S. Highway 199 as the Florence fire sends plumes of smoke skyward. (AP Photo)
The fire west of Silver Peak will be renamed the West Florence Fire.

The eastern side will be managed from the established camp in Cave Junction, said Richard Nieto, branch director for the Florence Fire.

"The fire has become so large that it's too big for a single team to handle," said Rick Hartigan, fire spokesman in Gold Beach.

Fire crews from around the country have been trickling into tent camps in the area. They scrambled to prepare a common radio frequency, bring facilities for hot meals and form a list of crews and equipment to battle the fire's western flank.

After a limited presence earlier in the week, fire engines, hotshot crews and helicopters were seen Friday near Gold Beach and in the tiny outpost of Agness.

Dark, colorful smoke fills the sky over a Selma, Ore., home as the Florence fire continues to burn. (AP Photo)
Fire commanders have been concentrating on the fire's eastern flank because of the threat to 17,000 residents in the Illinois Valley. Crews now seem to be gaining the upper hand on that part of the fire, although the threat isn't over.

Nieto said wind gusts, uneven terrain and dense fuels were pushing the flames west and northwest.

Flames were about four miles from the tiny community of Wilderness Retreat in the fire's southwest corner and triage teams headed there Friday to assess and protect homes, he said.

The new command post is being set up at the Curry County Fairgrounds, displacing college summer courses that use the facility, said Janet Pretti, program coordinator for Southwestern Oregon Community College.

About 45 students will finish their last two weeks of class at the high school, she said.

Nikolas Granville, 11, and his sister Victoria Granville, 3, of Selma, Ore., look towards the mountains and a giant cloud of smoke. (AP Photo)
"This is a small town and everybody shares, so it'll be working out just fine," Pretti said as she watched officials scramble to install eight temporary phone lines.

Officials were waiting for a 10,000-gallon metal-framed water tank to hold water for helicopter drops on the fire's western and northern edges.

Firefighters must treat water pumped from the Illinois River with Clorox before they dump it on the burning forests because they are trying to prevent the spread of Port Orford cedar root disease, a devastating blight that has already infected several watersheds.

The river water will be pumped into the tank at 325 gallons a minute, then treated with one gallon of Clorox for every 1,000 gallons of water. Firefighters must also wash the wheels and undercarriage of their trucks with treated water before leaving the forest to prevent the disease from spreading.

The tank can fill about five helicopter buckets at a time, and will be refilled constantly, said Rick MacDonald, a U.S. Forest Service assistant fire management officer.

In Agness, a team of structural protection specialists said they had finished assessing about 50 houses in the area. About half could be saved if fire came through, said Paul Konzen, with Engine 53 from the Los Padres National Forest in Ventura, Calif.

Bulldozers, two hand crews and a hotshot crew worked Friday to complete three staggered containment lines around the fire's northern edge.

"It's moving in pulses," said Daniel Ramirez, also with Engine 53. "Today it might burn real good and then die down for a day or two."

Conditions in the woods were tough, firefighters said, and included run-ins with scorpions, rattlesnakes, "old growth" poison oak and tan oak, a plant that emits a dust that is poisonous to breath.

Here is what Grampa Dave has beening warning about and predicting inspite of the miss leading news:

The Florence wildfire has grown so large that officials Friday drew an imaginary north-south line down the middle of the 80-mile-long blaze and split firefighting duties into two camps about 40 miles apart.

More than 1,200 firefighters and support staff are en route to Gold Beach to operate out of a new command post that will focus on fighting the fire's movement to the north and west.

The people from Brookings to Gold Beach and into the Agness Area need to be alert to the new reality of the fire moving West, Southwest and North.

Stay alert and safe Granof8!

If a typical Banana Belt Day happens before this fire gets under control that down the mountain to the ocean hot air flows/winds could be a disaster.

Wanted these al Qaeda Tree Huggers for contributing to uncontrollable forest fires in Oregon!

I like it !!

Hang 'M High !!

Molon Labe !!

Thanks again Gramps! You do an excellent job detailing the fires caused by the eco-terrorists. We need to keep emphasizing their complicity as they are in a self-protection PR mode big time, claiming they are not to blame. Neither was Hitler.

Grampa, can you put up a map?

There's an Illinois Valley in Oregon? I live in Illinois, so I find that interesting.

"This is where the fire is burning and most of it is not controllable due to the lack of roads, no timber or brush removal for over a decade."

Yep : lack of access roads and an unimaginable buildup of deadfall and brush is the legacy of the environazis.

The regulations, lawsuits and environmental policy they have forced down our throats for thirty years are an absolute, DISMAL FAILURE