Posted on 08/20/2003 2:39:25 PM PDT by PlutoPlatter
Fire jumps Hwy. 20; Santiam Pass may be shut for days Wind fans blazes; numerous camps, campsites evacuated
By Barney Lerten, bend.com (barney@bend.com) Originally Posted August 19, 2003 at 4:57 pm Last Update August 20, 2003 at 10:29 am Reference Code: AR-11052
August 20 - One of two wind-fueled wildfires in the Mt. Jefferson Wilderness Area jumped Highway 20 near Santiam Pass overnight as both blazes grew quickly in size, only about a dozen miles apart. The White House was monitoring the situation, in case the blazes force a change in President Bush’s planned Thursday visit to Camp Sherman to tout his “Healthy Forests Initiative.”
Highway 20, a key east-west thoroughfare over the Cascades, “probably” will be closed "for a couple of days" at least, due to the Booth Fire, which began a mile north of Highway 20 and expanded to 2,400 acres overnight, said fire information officer Christy Donham at the Central Oregon Interagency Dispatch Center in Prineville.
“It did cross the highway, bumping into Suttle and Blue lakes,” Donham said Wednesday morning. “It’s still a wind-driven event. They did not do the planned burnout last night because it was too windy, so it’s zero percent contained.”
“We’re looking at possibly a really long closure,” said Oregon Department of Transportation spokesman Dan Knoll. “We would prefer not to have a shutdown of several days or a week, if we could get pilot vehicles through” to lead convoys of traffic.
Another fire-related problem has emerged that could keep the key Cascades link shut, Knoll said.
“It’s not just the fire being so close to the highway,” he said. “The fire removes all the grass, bushes and shrubbery, so the rocks and logs are rolling downhill, onto the highway. We actually had a snowplow up on the highway to have the roads clear of rocks and logs. It adds a whole new element.”
Meanwhile, about 13 miles to the north, the Bear Butte Fire grew to about 4,000 acres overnight, having been spotted Tuesday afternoon about five miles from the 10,495-foot peak of Mt. Jefferson and eventually burning onto the southwest corner of the Warm Springs Indian Reservation.
“We will have air tankers and helicopters, crews and engines” on the fires, Donham said, and the Medford-based National Type 1 Incident Management Team, led by Bob Anderson, was slated to take over joint management of both blazes by midday Wednesday.
“The White House is aware of and monitoring the situation,” said fire information officer Christy Donham. “The White House is letting the Forest Service The White House is aware of and monitoring the situation. The White House is letting the Forest Service do its job. Christy Donham Fire information officer
do its job. Any changes in the president’s schedule, they will announce.”
So far, presidential advance teams in the Camp Sherman area said Wednesday morning that no changes had been made in the president's plans to arrive aboard Air Force One at Roberts Field Thursday afternoon, travel to Camp Sherman to tour the forest and give remarks, and leave Redmond Friday morning. More details are being withheld, for security reasons.
Numerous camps, campsites and recreation areas on and around the region's lakes were evacuated as a precaution Tuesday evening due to the two fires. The Red Cross set up a shelter at Sisters Elementary School for primarily evacuated young campers who needed a place to stay. It was the second such shelter in Sisters of the summer, as the Link Fire also forced some campsite evacuations and threatened Black Butte Ranch.
While the new fires' causes were under investigation, no lightning had been reported in the area for some time.
The Bear Butte Fire was reported by a Warm Springs helicopter shortly after 1 p.m. south of Mount Jefferson and about 13 miles northwest of Camp Sherman.
That fire began at the north end of the Mt. Jefferson Wilderness Area, on the boundary between the Warm Springs Indian Reservation and the Deschutes National Forest. As it grew, it burned onto the southwest side of the reservation.
The Booth Fire was reported by the Henkel Butte lookout shortly before 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, about a mile north of the Santiam Pass summit, two miles west of the Corbett Sno-Park, officials said.
The Booth Fire had burned Tuesday night to within “anywhere from ¼ mile to 100 yards” north of the highway, near the 4,817-foot summit, said Carol Connolly of the COIDC in Prineville.
“It’s a typical wind-driven fire – very long and skinny, paralleling Highway 20 on the north,” Connolly said.
Winds cause trouble
In both cases, winds The fire removes all the grass, bushes and shrubbery, so the rocks and logs are rolling downhill, onto the highway. ... It adds a whole new element. Dan Knoll Oregon Dept. of Transportation spokesmann
gusting to 30 mph or higher prevented use of smokejumpers to fight the blaze, meaning crews had to walk in to the rugged area, Connolly said.
“It’s just so windy,” she said.
The Booth Fire was “burning actively to the east,” Donham said Tuesday night. “The wind is still kicking.” Burnout operations had been planned during the night, on the south size of the blaze, to rob the fire of fuel.
ODOT, Oregon State Police and Deschutes County shut Highway 20 at the summit around 4:45 p.m. due to the fire threatening the roadway.
Eastbound traffic was turned back at Santiam Junction, while westbound traffic was being turned around at Camp Sherman. With no estimate when the key east-west thoroughfare would reopen, motorists were advised to use Highway 26 or Highway 58 as alternate routes. The Old McKenzie Highway, state Highway 242, was not recommended for travel over the pass, Knoll said.
The list of precautionary camp, resort and campsite evacuations around the two blazes included Camps Tamarack, Caldera and Davidson, and campgrounds at Blue Lake, Scout Lake, South Shore, Blue Bay, East Lake, Round Lake, Square Lake, Long Lake and Jack Lake. Camp Tamarack evacuees spent the night at the Red Cross shelter in Sisters.
Three retardant planes were working the Booth Fire, and no structures were threatened by either fire, officials said. But dead and downed timber made accessibility difficult in both fire areas, said COIDC spokesman Jim Holroyd.
Smoke or fire weren’t visible Tuesday evening on the ODOT Webcam (http://www.tripcheck.com/RoadCond/izone5.htm) located at the pass, though cars could be seen turning around when the closure occurred, followed by an empty stretch of highway as the sun set. The smoke indeed was visible at the pass on Wednesday morning.
A growing cloud of smoke, meanwhile, could be seen Tuesday on the road camera aimed west on Highway 20 from Sisters.
Can anyone say Ecoterrorism?
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