[Grampa Dave]

Again the two edged sword is being faced by the fire fighters.

The cool weather makes it easier in that the big fire in the Wilderness Area is not spreading East and South East.

However, the cooler weather makes it harder to use back fires to widen the fire control lanes around the fire.

What is not being put out by the Floristry Service PR people is simple. They can't get into the wilderness area to fight the fire due to the no roads, no timber thinning and no brush removal for ten + years. So it will have to burn itself out. If hot, dry and windy conditions come back without large fire containment lanes on the East and South East sides, there could be future problems.

[Grampa Dave]

This morning's report.

The fire's advances to the north are not in this article, and I will post that later.

Hopefully, Granof8, will update us on the north end and west sides of the fires in the Wilderness areas.

[Grampa Dave]

The latest on the SW Oregon fires, courtesy of the Rural Cleansers of America, the Green al Qaeda Eco Thugs.

Please use your pingers to spread the word.

[madfly]

ping

[Grampa Dave]

Looks like there may be a different editor in charge of the fire news of Oregon Live, this morning. This editor knows that there is a big fire there. The feel good editor, yesterday ignored the fire news until about noon or so much pressure was put on re what was happening re the fires. Then news started to filter out.

---

S. Oregon fire, crews in race on north end

08/06/02

ANDY DWORKIN, RYAN FRANK and JOSEPH ROSE

AGNESS -- The Florence fire stubbornly edged north on Monday as firefighters rushed to outflank it with knuckle-bruising work to dig a fire line in front of two small communities: Agness to the west and Galice to the east.




Cool weather and a light rain kept even the most aggressive corners of the fire from advancing far, but it also made burnouts impossible and gave firefighters digging lines a dousing.

On the northwestern edge of the 235,000-acre fire, crews cut the first few miles of a planned 60-mile fire line that will stretch from Agness to the California border. On the northeastern corner, about 200 firefighters switched from burnout duty to extending the 40-mile Illinois Valley fire line another 15 miles from Selma to the Galice area.

Eventually, fire managers want to connect those lines by looping north of the fire, cutting off its weeklong meandering toward the Wild Rogue Wilderness.

Time continues to be of the essence, fire officials said, as the weather forecast is changing. Temperatures are expected to rise later in the week, meaning winds could pick up and blow the blaze toward the coast. The last time northeastern winds stoked the Florence fire, it ran roughshod over hills and valleys, significantly increasing its girth.

At a community meeting in Brookings Monday night, fire managers were skeptical that they could stop the fire if it wants to come to the coast, even with the 60-mile fire line.

"I'm 40 percent thinking that we may hold it," Kim Martin, incident commander for the west side, told about 100 people at the Azalea Middle School.

"Oh," one woman said. "That's bad."

"There are too many variables at this point to give you better odds," Martin said. "If we can't hold it, we've got real problems."

He told residents that the north end of the fire had been running hard.

"Because that has a huge potential of getting into the Rogue River and coming down the Rogue River, we're very concerned about that," Martin said.

Brookings resident Tamara Pettinger said south coast resident are not underestimating the fire. "We all know it could burn to the coast in a day if the weather turns around, and that happens here this time of year," she said. "I'm pretty concerned."

Earlier in the day, Roland Shaw, who is leading the attack on the fire's northwest corner, said that toward the end of the week, the fire is "probably going to get pretty active in some places."

Already, that northwest area is "a lot hotter, moving a lot faster" than the rest of the west zone, said Kim Soper, a fire behavior analyst with the fire team based in Gold Beach.

With the fire threatening to strengthen in the coming days, fire officials "have set some things in place as to what we're going to do when (the blaze) hits some trigger points in Agness," said Bob Mallett, operations section chief for the western fire team.

"That could happen in the next couple of days. It would move some people out of here," Mallett said, although he noted that rain could well delay any threat to Agness. "Most likely, it will happen at some point. But we don't know when."

Curry County sheriff's Capt. Mark Metcalf said officers have plans laid out if a voluntary evacuation becomes necessary. Residents will have at least 48 hours' notice before they should evacuate, a fire official said.

"We want people to be prepared, in case the weather turns bad," Metcalf said.

Near Agness, fire crews used bulldozers, chain saws, shovels and their hands to clear line. The work was hard, officials said, because there are no big clearings, called anchor points, along the line for crews to work from.

"We're trying to put line in, and we have no anchors anywhere on this line," Mallett said. "If we can at least get a hold in up here . . . and contain this beast, we'll have an established anchor."

A crew of 20 Chena Hot Shot firefighters from Fairbanks, Alaska, cleared brush along a dirt access road south of Agness. They buzzed through brush tangled with manzanita and pine trees next to the road, which had been cleared with bulldozers. The crew planned to clear more than one mile during a 12-hour shift Monday.

"Our goal is to make sure it (the fire) doesn't get past the dozer line," said Ted Pierce, crew foreman.

The dozer line plus the hot shots' work cleared a 30-foot-wide fire line. Once they are finished, the crews will burn brush and trees below the line to rob fuel from the flames and halt the fire.

"This is a tough piece of ground in here," Shaw said. "We're making good progress. (But) you always wish you could get it done a little faster."

Weather should help On the Illinois Valley side of the fire, cool moist air Monday prevented fire crews from completing burnouts along the containment line west of U.S. 199.

At the same time, they began marching north in an attempt to build up to 15 miles of more fire line around the fire's northern head, between Agness and Galice.

About 500 firefighters were moved to a new camp established at Sam Brown Campground in the hills northwest of Selma to begin the work.

Weather and fire behavior experts said this week's weather should be on the Illinois Valley firefighters' side. In addition to drier condition for burnout operations, a weather front is expected to send 20 mph winds out of the northeast, which would blow against and parallel to the flames, said Erik Christiansen, a fire behavior specialist.

After a fierce weekend of bulldozing, digging, detonating explosives and setting controlled burnouts, fire commanders on the eastern flank said Monday that they had nearly completed fortifying the 40-mile containment line.

The only work remaining is planned burnouts by smoke jumpers in the rugged wilderness south of O'Brien and along Chrome Ridge, fire officials said.

"We think we can hold it," said Mike Ferris, a fire information officer.

On Monday, U.S. 199 was buzzing with pickups hauling furniture, mattresses and boxes of belongings from Grants Pass back into the Illinois Valley. On Monday, fire officials eased the evacuation notice to four hours.

Josephine County Sheriff's Lt. Lee Harman said that about 75 percent of the estimated 1,000 people who evacuated last week have returned home. "We've canceled our security patrols at night," he said.

But fire officials said residents shouldn't become complacent. The cooler weather doesn't mean the threat has passed, they said.

"There's a lot of fire out there -- a tremendous amount," said Mike Lohrey, incident commander. "Until we get that threat contained, that risk remains real."

---

Here is what Grampa Dave has been warning about for about a week now, the possible western advancement as well as the current northern advancement of the wilderness fire.

"At a community meeting in Brookings Monday night, fire managers were skeptical that they could stop the fire if it wants to come to the coast, even with the 60-mile fire line.

"I'm 40 percent thinking that we may hold it," Kim Martin, incident commander for the west side, told about 100 people at the Azalea Middle School.

"Oh," one woman said. "That's bad."

To put this in perspective if it gets hot and an East wind comes up during a typical Banana Belt Day, the communities of Brookings to Gold Beach could be at peril and as far south as the Smith River Area in California.

This is due to the fact that they can't fight the fire in the wilderness area due to no roads, no timber or brush removal/thinning for over a decade thanks to the agendas of the al Qaeda Green Terrorists who control Oregon.

[madfly]

Related Article.

People who love trees:
Farah holds earth-worshippers responsible for fire damage
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/728460/posts

[Grampa Dave]

For the handful of Freepers not living on the West Coast who are concerned about the Green al Qaeda fires in Oregon and California. This update is for you.

Please spread the word. I get the feeling that this is not important to most in Free Republic who have their personal agendas to push each day.

The Green al Qaeda Terrorism forced on this country from Floriduh north to Maine, west to the Pacific Coast, down the Coast and then back east is far more dangerous to the average American than the real al Qaeda thugs.

Thanks for your support on this burning issue. (Sorry about the pun)

Please link any Green Terrorist activity in your area or nationwide to this thread and then please link this thread to your threads. We need to do this on a regular basis, so people can wake up and realize the size/magnitude of the Green al Qaeda Terrorism.

[Grampa Dave]

What happened to the Key Word list that I posted?

It was there and it wasn't there.

Also, this is not showing in breaking news now as it was at first.

Thank you.

Should I re post the keywords?

[Grampa Dave]

FYI, the latest on the fires in SW Oregon, courtesy of the agendas of the Oregon al Qaeda Green Jihadists.

[Grampa Dave]

As you know, the Kalmiopsis Wilderness Fire was named the Florence Fire by the Florist Circus people to avoid calling it the Kalmiopsis Wilderness Fire.

Well, folks, this map of the fire on 5 August shows that there ain't much of the Kalmiopsis Wilderness left. Then little green shaded area around the west, north and south side of the Kalmiopsis Wilderness is all that was left 24 hours ago.

So the enviralists main Druid Cathedral in the Pacific Northwest has burnt up as a result of their no roads, no logging or removal of dead trees and of course no brush removal.

Can you image the uproar if a lumber company had an accident and caused the Kalmiopsis Wilderness to disappear?

Most of the world, the USA and most Oregonians are not aware that the Kalmiopsis Wilderness is now dead trees and ash. They think that some mythical fire, the Florence Fire is burning some where.

[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.)