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http://www.disasternews.net/news/news.php?articleid=1510

About 1,000 people were still displaced Sunday, when the fire was about five percent contained.

We’ve gathered stuff we need to take care of ourselves when we’re away from home.
—Rev. Harold Premdas

Nearly 500,000 acres were burning in fires across Oregon over the weekend.
Some residents left the communities of O'Brien, Cave Junction, Selma, and Kerby, and by the weekend the risk had lessened for some 17,000 others, who had been previously warned they may have to evacuate with only a half hour's notice.
Residents across Oregon’s Illinois Valley were glued to televisions and radios, waiting for evacuation orders, or for the sound of firefighters already knocking on doors and warning people to leave.
“We’ve gathered stuff we need to take care of ourselves when we’re away from home,” said the Rev. Harold Premdas from the Cape Junction, Ore. Seventh-Day Adventist Church. “We’re trying to pack things that can’t be replaced, and also our records, and our computers.”
Seventh-Day Adventist churches in the area, working with Adventist Community Service, have opened their facilities to evacuees who need shelter.
Premdas uttered what everybody fears this week in southwestern Oregon: “If a fire goes through here it will burn everything.”
Oregon’s peak fire season – the month of August – is only beginning.
Faith-based groups were gearing up to help meet needs that might arise in the area. In Jackson County in southwestern Oregon, the Rogue Valley Interfaith Relief Network was on standby to respond. The network, put together in the wake of a flood in 1997, has trained volunteers from 12 area churches.
One service the volunteers provide is an answering service to non-life-threatening calls to 911 during a fire or other disaster, said Paul Robinson of the United Church of Christ disaster ministries network.
“We schedule volunteers in 4-hour shifts,” said Robinson. “They answer questions like ‘Are the roads open? Is the fire heading in my direction? When do I leave?’ ”
Jackson County emergency management provides the volunteers with updated maps showing the location of a fire.
Training is intense, said Robinson, and as a result during actual disasters the volunteers are remarkably calm and effective.
The Rogue Valley Interfaith Relief Network also works with corporate partners to coordinate material donations during disasters, said Robinson. “We know the managers to go see. Within one day we can gather needed materials.”
People with heart problems have been warned to stay inside because of heavy ash fall from the nearby fires.
“The ashes are so bad it looks like it’s snowing,” said Chris Liles, a resident of Smith River, Calif., six miles from the Oregon state line.
Burnt pine needles and smoldering pieces of branches were drifting down along with the ash.
Liles was concerned it would be difficult to move firefighting equipment into some rural locations. “We have so many really remote areas. There are no roads out to them.”
Liles attends the Smith River Baptist church, which had one member who was evacuated over the weekend. Liles and other church members were concerned because nobody could reach her. “She only has a cell phone so nobody could get hold of her,” said Liles.
At the First Baptist Church in Selma, Ore., Catherine Ninow was volunteering to teach vacation bible school. Every day, she said, they ask each other if anyone has heard anything. “Now we’re out here in faith,” she said.
Ninow and others are trying to keep some semblance of their daily lives while being ready to leave quickly.
Area restaurants have been cooking food for firefighters, added Ninow. “At one restaurant, somebody called to ask if the place had burned. The guy there said, ‘We’re not burned but I’m gonna burn the eggs for 150 firefighters if I don’t get off the phone.’ ”
Ninow expressed gratitude to the firefighters for protecting homes. Fifteen firefighters have been killed this year fighting blazes that have burned millions of acres across western states. The latest fatality occurred Tuesday in Colorado, when a helicopter dropping water on hotspots near Rocky Mountain National Park crashed, killing the pilot.
“We all honk and wave when we see the firefighters,” Ninow said. “Their lives are on the line doing this for us.”

Posted August 5, 2002

MSNBC
http://www.msnbc.com/news/763669.asp?0st=N11

Oregon fires merge into inferno
Crews in southwest Oregon have been lighting "burnout" fires like this one, near the town of O'Brien, in a bid to rob a massive wildfire of new fuel.(picture at URL)
Aug. 8 -- U.S. Forest Service workers often toil well after a wildfire to prevent later flooding and mudslides. NBC's Roger O'Neil reports.
Thousands of firefighters also battle major blaze in California
MSNBC STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS
Aug. 8 — Two prolonged Oregon wildfires merged overnight to create a 300,000-acre inferno as nearly 5,200 firefighters put up defensive lines, the National Interagency Fire Center reported Thursday. In Southern California, meanwhile, 3,100 firefighters were trying to protect property from a fire that’s destroyed 27 homes and forced 1,000 residents to flee. Together, the two hotspots are absorbing three-quarters of the entire firefighting force across the West.
THE OREGON fire, burning inside the Siskiyou National Forest, was only 15 percent contained Thursday morning, as crews built fire lines on three flanks. A “red flag” warning was posted Thursday in the area, alerting crews to expect gusty northeast winds and low humidity — natural ingredients for fanning the fire.
The Illinois Valley’s 17,000 residents remained under an evacuation advisory, and some 220 homes in the Rogue River area were also warned of advancing flames. The communities of Cave Junction, Kerby, Selma, Agness and Gardner Ranch, as well as the McCaleb Ranch Boy Scout Camp, were described as threatened. Firefighters and sheriff’s deputies have been going door-to-door advising people to be ready to leave
. The fires, the southern flank of which has spread into northern California, have been burning since July 13.
SAN DIEGO-AREA FIRE GROWS
In Southern California, several hundred more firefighters joined a fire line 60 miles northeast of San Diego. The blaze, which had grown to nearly 54,000 acres by Thursday, has forced 1,000 residents from several towns to flee and destroyed 27 homes. Eight of those were lost over the last 24 hours. Ninety-five other structures have been destroyed as well.
Some 3,100 firefighters are now battling the blaze, which was 60 percent contained.
Officials hope to have it under control by Sunday.
“As it heads toward the desert, the fuel becomes pretty sparse,” said Abby O’Leary, a spokeswoman for the California Department of Forestry. “In the foothills, there’s still quite a bit of plants, but as it starts moving northeast ... it possibly could burn itself out.”
Local wildfire coverage
• Springfield, Ore.: New towns in line of fire
• Portland, Ore.: Resort town told to prepare
• San Diego: More crews brought in
• Durango, Colo.: Chief of staff defends stance on aid
As a As a precaution, the rural town of Warner Springs, population 1,200, was partly evacuated, while 70 people were told to leave the Los Coyotes Indian Reservation. The 340 residents of Ranchita were evacuated earlier.
And in Borrego Springs, elderly residents who might suffer from smoky air were also urged to leave. The blaze started July 29 when a National Guard helicopter clipped a power line while looking for marijuana plants in the rugged, isolated area. A severe drought — the San Diego area has seen just three inches of rain this year, 30 percent of normal — has made conditions ripe for wildfires.
FIREFIGHTER DIES
The fire season also claimed another life. The National Interagency Fire Center reported Thursday that a South Dakota volunteer firefighter who sustained injuries in a fire there had passed away on Tuesday, bringing to 20 the number of firefighters killed this summer.
Nearly 4.8 million acres have burned in the United States so far this year, almost three times the number last year and more than double the average for the last decade.