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KGWTV's morning report on the Biscuit Fire:

Crews Work Fast to Contain Biscuit Fire(North and NW Side)
08/19/2002

By JOHN ENDERS, Associated Press Writer

Fire crews on Sunday finished burning a fireline around this Agness, where flames from the Biscuit Fire were within a mile of several dozen outlying homes.

With good wind conditions holding, crews were expected to next conduct burnouts along the fire's western side near Pistol River and Gardner Ranch, where residents were under a pre-evacuation notice, said Peter D'Aquanni, a fire spokesman.

"We're going to get in while we can," he said. "If we get another day like yesterday and last night and we're going to be in good shape on this west side."

Slightly lower temperatures, higher humidities and a strong inversion layer that keeps the fire from kicking up should help firefighters into the week, he said.

U.S. Forest Service firefighters Eric Martin, right, Cory George, middle, and Norma May, all from Prineville, Ore., look for hot spots while mopping up The Biscuit Fire near Agness. (AP Photo)

The Biscuit Fire stood at 435,654 acres Sunday and was 35 percent contained. The fire is the largest in Oregon in a century and is the biggest in the United States.

The fire in southwest Oregon and northern California covers an area about five times the size of the Portland-metro area, said David Widmark, spokesman for the Northwest Interagency Coordination Center in Portland.

On the southwest portion of the fire, crews continued to deal with a a 1,000-acre spot fire that ignited late Friday near the Chetco and Pistol river and could head into the river drainage system.

Residents along the upper Chetco River and upper Pistol River were put on alert earlier in the week in case they had to evacuate.

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An evacuation notice for 17,000 residents in the Illinois Valley was lifted Friday, and pre-evacuation notices were still in effect Sunday for residents of the communities of Agness, Illahe, Wilderness Retreat and the upper Pistol River drainage.

Other Oregon Fires

Other fires burning around Oregon include:

-- the Tiller Fire Complex, which had burned 53,900 acres and was 43 percent contained.

-- the Monument-Malheur Complex, which had burned 44,062 acres and was 97 percent contained.

-- the Mount Marion fire, which had burned 100 acres six miles southeast of Marion Forks.

-- the Apple fire, 21 miles east of Glide, had burned 5,000 acres by Sunday morning. Three campgrounds were closed, as were the Umpqua Trail and portions of the North Umpqua River.

-- the Suislaw River fire, 15 miles southwest of Veneta, started Saturday and had burned 400 acres by Sunday.

The current Brainstorm magazine has an interview with Mr. Merlich, one of the owners of a helicopter firm that fights forest fires.

Here is what Mr. Merlich warned about the potential of the Siuslaw Forest if it catches on fire:

The fires on the west side were huge and large. The cycle is the fuel builds up and it gets to a point and then it all burns and replaces itself. In this day and age, what would happen if we had a 1,546 square mile fire? People are not going to accept that--they might think it's good until it happens, and then they aren't. That's like burning from Redmond all the way to Salem or the Coast Range. That's how big that is. So our choices are to let it burn or to do something in advance of the fire--spend some money and get some products out, do a little thinning.

The Siuslaw, for one, is headed for that type of thing again. The trees are getting so thick. You don't do anything: there's no roads--when it catches on fire, it's going to burn.

Lets hope that Mr Merlich is wrong. Did some Green Jihadist read that article and decide to use Arson to start this fire?