Posted on 07/28/2002 10:14:13 AM PDT by Grampa Dave
Fires burning on more than 260,000 acres across Oregon
The Associated Press 7/28/02 1:04 AM
Major wildfires were burning on 264,000 acres in Oregon on Saturday. About 10,495 firefighters are working in the state. The Northwest Interagency Communication Center is tracking at least 14 major fires in Oregon. Top priorities for fire officials were the 9,000-acre Sheldon Ridge fire near The Dalles and the 2,261-acre Skunk Fire in Klamath County.
WHITE RIVER
Started: 7/23/02, one mile east of Maupin
Size: 20,000 acres
Containment: 30 percent.
Evacuations: mandatory evacuation of White River campground 7/24/02; Bake Oven Road and Buckhollow Road reopened, 7/27/02. Lower Deschutes River close from Shears Falls to Macks Canyon. 7/27/02.
Damage: Unknown.
On scene: 48 people
Cause: Lightning strikes
Threatened: 100 homes, 50 business, 200 outbuildings
SKUNK FIRE:
Started: 7/24/2002, Klamath County, north of Sprague River.
Size: 2,261 acres
Evacuations: Moccasin Hill and Klamath Forest Estates subdivisions
Damage: 50 homes, 5 business, 30 outbuildings threatened, one outbuilding destroyed.
Containment: 30 percent containment.
On scene: 360 people.
Cause: Lightning strikes.
SWAMP CREEK
Started 7/24/02, 4 miles northwest of Diamond.
Size: 320 acres.
Containment: 100 percent.
Evacuations: Threatened resources include Diamond Craters Research Natural Area, scattered outbuildings, ranches and livestock.
Damage: Unknown so far.
On scene: 48 people.
Cause: Lightning strikes.
CACHE MOUNTAIN:
Started: 7/24/02, 15 miles northwest of Sisters, Oregon
Size: 1200 acres.
Containment: 0 percent.
Evacuations: Camp Tamarack, mandatory evacuation. 7/25/02.
Damage: Fire has spread to Weyerhaeuser land. 7/25/02.
On scene: 62 firefighters.
Cause: Lightning.
SHELDON RIDGE:
Started: 7/24/02, 3 miles southwest of The Dalles.
Size: 9,000 acres
Containment: 30 percent
Evacuations: Voluntary evacuation of at least 250 homes.
Damage: Two outbuildings destroyed, one home damaged.
On scene: 800 firefigters, 125 Oregon National Guard troops.
Cause: Lightning.
WINTER-TOOLBOX FIRES
Started: in Lake County 07/12/02 and merged 7/20/02.
Size: 115,319 (both fires combined)
Containment: 55 percent (Toolbox); 55 percent (Winter)
Evacuations: Voluntary evacuations of 85 homes.
Damage: None reported.
On scene: 2,411 (both fires combined)
Cause: Lightning.
EYERLY COMPLEX
Started: 15 miles NE of Camp Sherman, 07/09/02.
Size: 23,573 acres.
Containment: 100 percent.
Evacuations: 280 homes asked to voluntarily evacuate last week.
Damage: 18 houses destroyed.
On scene: 949 firefighters.
Cause: Lightning.
MALHEUR COMPLEX
Started: 8-25 miles from Prairie City, 07/12/02.
Size: 15,500 acres.
Containment: 20 percent.
Evacuations: No mandatory evacuation, but 52 residences and 13 commercial properties and 196 outbuildings are threatened. A historic home, Austin House, is 4 miles from the fire.
Damage: None.
On scene: 1,088 firefighters
Cause: Lightning
TILLER COMPLEX
Started: Outside Tiller, east of Canyonville off Interstate 5, 07/12/02.
Size: 9,800 acres.
Containment: 18 percent
Evacuations: South Umpqua Road closed at milepost 6. Five homes in Ash Valley threatened. Tribal ceremonial grounds and critical cultural resources are threatened.
Damage: No listed damage.
On scene: 1,011 firefighters
Cause: Lightning.
NORTH UMPQUA COMPLEX
Started: 25 miles east of Glide, 07/12/02.
Size: 1,120 acres.
Containment: 35 percent.
Evacuations: 20 residences threatened, one business and 10 outbuildings. Historical resources, cultural sites threatened.
Damage: None.
On Scene: 561 firefighters.
Cause: Lightning.
MONUMENT FIRE
Started: 9 miles southwest of Unity, 07/12/02
Size: 24,400 acres
Containment: 60 percent.
Evacuations: 75 residences threatened, plus five commercial buildings and ten outbuildings.
Damage: Major power outages 7/25/02. Severe damage to computers and data management at fire camp.
On Scene: 1,495 firefighters, military battalion from Topeka, Kansas in place.
Cause: Lightning.
747/MURRAY COMPLEX
Started: Northeast of Paulina in Black Canyon Wilderness, 07/13/22.
Size: 11,739 acres
Containment: 50 percent.
Evacuations: No evacuations; Four homes and eight outbuildings threatened.
Damage: Road closures.
On scene: 906 firefighters.
Cause: Lightning.
BISCUIT-FLORENCE-SOUR BISCUIT COMPLEX
Started: 17 miles southwest of Cave Junction, 07/13/02.
Size: 15,930 acres
Containment: zero percent.
Evacuations: Threatened resources are 13 private residences, 36 outbuildings of Oak Flats. Fire jumped the Illinois River 7/25/02. Cloud cover on 7/26/02 prevented airborne attacks.
Damage: Five outbuildings destroyed.
On scene: 737 firefighters.
Cause: Lightning.
TIMBERED ROCK FIRE
Started: Unknown. 20 miles north of Medford.
Size: 4,100 acres
Containment: 10 percent
Evacuations: None
Damage: None
On Scene: 433 firefighters
Cause: lightning
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Source: The Northwest Interagency Coordination Center
I guess I'll have to do my part to help you guys out in Oregon next winter by coming down to Mt. Bachelor again to ski. Such an effort, such a sacrifice...but I'm up to it.
When I was in CO fighting the Hayman fire with the NC Air Guard (my unit), I read in the paper that the local insurance companies were doing exactly this.
Two others survived the plunge and were airlifted to the Mercy Medical Center in Redding, Ca., said Brian Harris, a the U.S. Forest Service spokesman.
Their conditions were not known. The dead, ages 51, 29 and 19, included two men and a woman.
The crew was helping with a 500-acre backfire set to help contain another 1,350-acre fire 10 miles south of this northern California town when one wheel went off the narrow gravel road and the truck rolled off a steep ravine at about 1:30 a.m., Harris said.
``Indications are they rolled in the worst possible place. It's safe to say they rolled the entire 800 feet,'' over rocky and partially wooded terrain, Harris said.
Meanwhile, in west-central Oregon, firefighters ordered the evacuation of the 4,000-5,000 people after stiff wind fanned a 3,300-acre fire near a subdivision just west of Sisters.
Wind was causing spot fires in and around the Black Butte Ranch resort, where one home was reported burned. The complex is made up of two golf courses, a lodge, about 1,300 homes, not all of which are occupied year-round.
Black Butte general manager Loy Helmley said it would be a few days before residents can return. The Red Cross was setting up evacuation centers.
A sprawling wildfire near the Columbia River port town of The Dalles singed another 3,000 acres overnight and burned to within inches of some buildings but had not destroyed any homes by Sunday.
``The fire is continuing to pose serious control problems,'' as gusty winds periodically kick up the flames, said Peg Foster, an Oregon Department of Forestry spokeswoman.
Crews had the fire about 55 percent contained, she said. Residents of 250 homes have been urged to evacuate since the lightning-started fire flared Thursday.
Stiff winds whistling through the Columbia River Gorge pushed the fire toward high-tension electrical wires overnight, Foster said.
The wires were still live Sunday, but if carbon-rich smoke thickens around the cables, it could cause the electricity to arc, endangering firefighters. If that danger intensifies, she said, authorities might switch them off and reroute power.
In California's Sierra Nevada, a blaze in and around Giant Sequoia National Monument had grown to 66,000 acres Sunday, after burning an additional 1,600 acres during the night.
The ancient sequoia trees weren't completely safe but firefighters had minimized the threat, said fire information officer Jill Slater.
``They're really getting a handle on it,'' she said.
The wildfire was 30 percent contained.
A woman was arraigned Friday on charges of starting the fire, about 130 miles north of Los Angeles, while cooking over an illegal campfire.
Thirty-one major fires still active on Sunday around the West and in Alaska had burned about 491,000 acres, the National Interagency Fire Center reported.
Twelve fire fighters have lost their lives fighting the Druid agenda fires in this season so far.
There is exactly such a proposal (albeit more detailed) here. Retired firefighters are perfect for the job.
Reduced premiums or increased premiums would start to have an effect on fire proofing like you have done around your home. If enough homes get cancelled insurance policies due to a local or state green agendas, all hell would break loose and force changes in the druid pro fire agendas.
Unfortunately, when policies are canceled, most people blame the insurer, not the green agenda. They just don't make the connection. Insurers have been hiding behind state regulation, just like everybody else.
One big fire near here in Utah is still burning away, but the worst is yet to come with thousands of dried out, beetle- destroyed acres of trees waiting for a lightning strike or a Fed Agency arsonist to start it. Many of these trees are in a National Monument.
My biggest fear is that the Forest Service and the Park Service have bought the enviro's ideas 100% and spend public cash to publicize them. Three more firemen were killed yesterday in Oregon. Are they considered expendable, by the greens, to allow the forest critters to continue to live? The sheer idiocy of politicians and the whacos is unbearable!
I've written to my Reps and Senators about this, but no action is detected from them.
However, it will take 2 decades to reverse all of the Green Jihadists bad science and anti human agendas foisted on us for two decades. Most of the Clintoonian pink panty wearing Florist Service people should be fired from the Forestry Service. However, how do you fire government civil service scum bags?
Here is the latest thread on the fire and it has the unfortunate deaths of the firefighters in California. (link to latest wildfire thread re Oregon/California)
Please do us a favor and post updates on Utah fires and the intermountain fires on these Oregon/California wildfire threads.
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