Cool weather is two-edged sword on Florence and Sour Biscuit Fires/Oregon

Oregon Live/ AP ^ | 06 August 2002 | Jeff Barnard / AP

[Grampa Dave]

Wildfire News/Oregon

Cool weather is two-edged sword on Florence and Sour Biscuit Fires

By JEFF BARNARD, The Associated Press, 8/6/02 3:17 AM

CAVE JUNCTION, Ore. (AP) -- Cool and humid weather that has kept a lid on the Florence and Sour Biscuit fires prevented crews from fire-hardening the southern end of the 40-mile containment line protecting the Illinois Valley.

"It's a two-edged sword," said Mike Lohrey, incident commander on the eastern front of the fires that have burned a combined 275,000 acres of the Siskiyou National Forest in southwestern Oregon said Monday.

A few drops of rain fell on the area Monday night.

Lohrey said about 25 percent of the containment line on the eastern flank of the fires has yet to be burned out, but a warming and drying trend beginning midweek will make that job easier, without whipping the fires to the explosive energy they showed a week ago.

"There's still a lot of fire out there," Lohrey said. "Until we can make that area black and the area is contained, the threat is real."

Though Florence was just 10 percent contained, and Sour Biscuit 15 percent, the threat diminished enough for the standing evacuation warning for the valley's 17,000 residents to be downgraded from two hours to four hours, meaning people should be ready to leave on four hours' notice.

Sheriff's deputies checking on the homes of about 1,200 people who evacuated the area have found three-quarters of them returned, said Josephine County sheriff's Lt. Lee Harman.

Illinois Valley Fire Chief Kyle Kirchner said he was not ready to lift the evacuation warning yet, because the warming trend will make the fire more volatile.

"We're very concerned about lifting it too soon if we get abnormal heat and would like to see how the fuels react," to the change in the weather, Kirchner said.

The threat remained high enough for Mayor Ed Faircloth to go ahead and cancel this weekend's Blackberry Festival, which brings an extra 5,000 people to the valley, but low enough for Susie and Jim Wood to take a break from five days of cutting brush around their home within sight of the fire line.

"I can't say it's not a little scary, especially as I look out the kitchen window and see an awful lot of smoke swirling around," said Susie Wood. "I think they've got a handle on it."

At the Illinois Valley Golf Course, smoke hugging the ground forced pro shop manager Bob Paul to quit playing on the back nine, but did not deter Kenny Lewis from his daily round.

"We're going to go out and see if we can find the ball in this smoke," he said.

While seven major fires continued burning across more than 462,000 acres in Oregon, the Florence and Sour Biscuit fires remained the top priority in the nation for scarce resources.

Favorable winds kept the northern flank of the fire from advancing on the rural communities of Agness and Oak Flat, located at the confluence of the Illinois and Rogue rivers, where firefighters cleared brush around homes and bulldozers dug containment lines, said spokeswoman Susan Mathison.

The fire was three miles from Oak Flat and six from Agness, but there was no evacuation notice in force, Mathison said. However, fire commanders marked their maps with 72-hour and 48-hour trigger points which, if the fire reaches them, will prompt deputies to go door-to-door warning residents to be ready to leave within 72 hours and 48 hours.

Harman said deputies arrested a Grants Pass man on charges of impersonating a firefighter and stealing some turkeys and chickens from a home where he advised residents to flee.

Wearing a yellow Nomex fire shirt with homemade patches identifying him as a firefighter, Kenton Bowden knocked on doors in the Selma area Sunday night telling people to evacuate, and tried to get into fire camp, Harman said. He was arrested Monday morning after going to the sheriff's office to ask why he had heard his name on his police scanner.

The fire still has the potential, given the right weather conditions, to run down the Chetco River to the coast or jump over Chrome Ridge and descend on the Rogue River near the whitewater rafting center of Galice, Lohrey said.

Reflecting the changing threat, fire commanders stopped the every-other-night community meetings at Illinois Valley High School, but held their first one in Galice, located on the Rogue River about 15 miles northeast of the fire perimeter.

Other Oregon fires causing major concern are:

--The Tiller Complex east of Canyonville, at 31,052 acres and 25 percent containment, threatening 15 residences.

--The Timbered Rock Fire 20 miles north of Medford, 75 percent contained at nearly 26,000 acres.

[Granof8]

Finally, today some helicopter activity on the west side. Looks like more than observers.

[Salvation]

From kgw.com

Boy Scouts Cope with Loss of Historic Camp

08/06/2002

Associated Press

The hundreds of firefighters battling the enormous Florence and Sour Biscuit Fires have managed to save almost every building in the threatened Illinois Valley.

But they were too late to save the historic McCaleb Ranch, a Boy Scout camp destroyed July 26.

Boy Scout executive Ed Walsh said it is too soon to say whether the ranch will be rebuilt.

Located along the Illinois River, 12 miles west of Selma, the 106 acre camp was surrounded by thick forest and had a three-bedroom ranch house donated to the Boy Scouts in 1960 by the late Betty McCaleb.

A week after the fire went through, Weiseth said, it is still too dangerous to enter the camp area to assess the damage. Besides the ranch house, the camp included two old miner's cabins.

Reports of the camp's destruction came from helicopter surveillance.

The camp was said to be different from other Boy Scout camps because of the ruggedness of the terrain, adjacent to the Kalmiopsis Wilderness. Most Boy Scouts slept in tents, and used the camp as a base to hike into the wilderness.

"It has some gorgeous timber," Weiseth said. "That's what I'm really sick about. It can never be replaced, not in my lifetime."

Betty McCaleb had lived on the property from 1927 -- her husband, Bob, died in 1958. The McCalebs mined gold and chrome, raised some cattle, and were largely self-sufficient, according to area news accounts.

Betty McCaleb continued to live in the ranch house until her death in 1994 at age 94. She is buried on the property next to her husband.

Weiseth said he hoped the McCaleb headstones had survived. If not, he said, "We'll build from there. We want to preserve that site."

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

[farmfriend]

That'a just sad. I love camping with the Scouts. I would hate to see camp Pahatsi go up in flames.

[Archie Bunker on steroids]

Thanks GD for all of today's updates. Could not participate - long day at work & then commitments right after.
New wave of thick smoke in the basin. Neighbor said something about new fires. Going to check the news. Maybe the Al Queda tree nazis decided to set the Winema Natl Forest on fire. Maybe not, all the erosion might bury the prized sucker fish.

[farmfriend]

Bump.