30-mile fire front menaces southwest Oregon towns

Oregon Live ^ | 7/30/02 | Beth Quinn

[Salvation]

From katu.com

July 30, 2002

About 17,000 Residents Poised To Evacuate In S. Oregon

CAVE JUNCTION - Two wildfires that have charred almost 100,000 acres of southwestern Oregon threaten to combine today as they march toward a string of towns.

All 17,000 residents of the Illinois Valley were told to prepare for possible evacuation.

The fires formed a front 25 miles long stretching between the communities of O'Brien and Selma, 20 miles north of the California line.

Related links

• Slideshow: Images From the Florence Fire
• Firefighters begin tough job of deciding which homes to save
• Fire closes US Hwy 199 between S. Oregon and California

[nutmeg]

Thank you Grampa Dave, for your updates on these horrible Oregon fires. Do you know exactly how close these fires are to Grants Pass? We still own a few acres there along the Applegate River (we live in CT). I'm getting pretty worried, looking at some of these photos.

Stay safe, Oregon FReepers!

nutmeg & zelig

[Grampa Dave]

Latgest NOAA Image from 6:43 pm, 29 July 02:

[Grampa Dave]

Here is the latest fire map for Oregon/Washington. You might want to save the properties so you can got to the site for updates:

[Grampa Dave]

This is from the Medford Mail Tribune, this morning:

July 30, 2002

---

Thousands of Illinois Valley residents are warned to evacuate ahead of the rampaging Florence fire
By PAUL FATTIG, Mail Tribune

KERBY — With the towering plume of the 70,000-acre Florence Fire looming behind him, firefighter John Bryson didn’t waste time with small talk.

"We are going house-to-house to see if we can help you do anything to triage the house in case it tops the ridge and comes over," Bryson told homeowner Robert Cornett late Monday afternoon.

"If you need any help, we’re here to help you move limbs or whatever it takes," Bryson continued. "We want to make sure the fire trucks don’t have any problem if they need to get in here to defend it."

Bryson’s squad of firefighters from the Florida Department of Forestry were among those deployed to go quickly door-to-door in the Illinois Valley to help residents in the event the Florence fire roared out of the Siskiyou National Forest.

The estimated 20,000-plus residents in the valley, which includes Selma, Kerby, Cave Junction and O’Brien, were warned to be ready to evacuate. The Josephine County Board of Commissioners on Monday declared a state of emergency in the county.

The explosive fire, driven by erratic winds that can turn on a whim, was heading largely south Monday night where it was expected to link up with the tail end of the 20,000-acre Sour Biscuit fire burning in a southerly direction in the national forest west of O’Brien.

Once united, the roughly 90,000-acre wildfire would stretch some two dozen miles, running nearly parallel along state Highway 199 from Selma to about three miles south of the California state line. In places, the fire was within a few miles of the highway Monday night.

The Florence fire, sparked by a lightning storm July 13, has burned the historic McCaleb cabin and two houses at Oak Flat on the lower Illinois River about eight miles west of Selma. Eight outbuildings also have been burned.

There are about 860 people assigned to the Florence fire and 380 to the Sour Biscuit fire, according to Forest Service spokesman Deryl Javons.

"Right now with the wind conditions, it is extremely dangerous for firefighters to be out there," he said, noting the agency is relying largely on aerial attacks and "indirect" firefighting, which includes back burning ahead of the fire.

"It’s so erratic, so unpredictable right now," he said. "That makes it very difficult to fight."

"There is fire behavior out there that veteran firefighters have never seen before," added agency spokesman Rick Hartigan. Flames are reportedly shooting as high as 200 feet at times.

Tim Birr, a member of the Tualatin Valley Fire & Rescue and of the state Fire Marshal Overhead Team, watched the fire explode Sunday west of Selma.

"The only thing I could compare it to was watching Mount St. Helens erupt in 1981," he said.

Meanwhile, too many valley homes may not be defendable if the fire leaves the national forest because brush, grass and trees have not been removed in the immediate vicinity, Birr said.

Many local residents weren’t waiting to be told to evacuate.

Selma residents Mort Mondale and Elaine Wood were being helped by a friend from Seattle who drove an 18-wheel truck down to help them remove their prized possessions.

About two miles south of Cave Junction, Bob and Bonnie Ringo literally had 14 tigers by the tail as they prepared for evacuation. They are the owners of the Wildwood Endangered Animal Sanctuary, which rescues tigers and lions from abusive situations.

"We’re hanging tough right now," Bob Ringo said late Monday evening. "We’re waiting to see what happens with the fire."

Volunteers led by Bob and Cheryl Henderson, whose home south of Jacksonville was threatened by the now-defunct Squire fire, brought horse trailers to evacuate the big cats if they needed to be moved.

Back on Sauer Flat about two miles north of Kerby, Bryson and squad continued going house-to-house to offer their assistance and expertise.

A longtime resident, Cornett had cleared the brush from underneath the trees in a stand near his home.

"I thought about putting sprinklers on the roof," Cornett told Bryson. "But the thing is, if the fire comes over here, we’re going to be without electricity and the pump will go out anyway."

No problem, Bryson said.

"It will be easy for a fire truck to come in and put a fire out, unless the flames are 50 feet high," Bryson said. "But you have a farm field across the highway from you, and your grass is mowed. It should be easy to defend this structure."

With that, Bryson and his squad fell in line and headed south to the next neighbor.

Up the road, neighbors Tim and Lorelei Newman looked at the column of fire, now a mile wide behind Mansfield Mountain.

"I don’t think it’s going to reach us, but I just don’t know," Tim Newman said.

"They are ‘blue tagging’ the neighbors now," Lorelei Newman said, referring to mailbox tags indicating the family will have only 30 minutes to leave if told to evacuate.

"We could do that easily," her husband said. "We’re ready if it comes to that."

Highway 199 was closed at the state line Monday because of fires burning in Northern California.

Reach reporter Paul Fattig at 776-4496 or e-mail him at pfattig@mailtribune.com

---

You can find this story online at:
http://www.mailtribune.com/archive/2002/0730/local/stories/01local.htm

[flamefront]

Excellent coverage. Looks like from the heat signatures, the fires are way down from yesterday.

[cake_crumb]

"Here is a photo of the Governor of Oregon working at an Enviral Fund Raiser Oregon while Oregon is burning up/down:"

LOL...I love that pic!

[LarryLied]

I don't know what it will take. Everytime the Greens cause destruction I think people will wake up but they don't. There has to be some limit on their ability to get away with what they do. I hope we are close to that limit.

[EBUCK]

Did you ever see this one..

Former Mayor Bud Clark...

EBUCK

[EBUCK]

We've just gotta keep the message fresh! The economic losses this year are going to be huge, especially coupled with our current employment situation. Scapegoats are going to be sought and we've got a pretty handy one right here! And they deserve the blame to boot.....

Buy a sticker..

EBUCK

[LarryLied]

Imagine if these fires were caused by someone fooling aorund with guns or church groups on a picnic. The press would never let us forget it.

[cake_crumb]

Thought you might be interested in this, too...

Memorial planned for three firefighters killed in California

HAPPY CAMP, Calif. (AP) – Firefighters battling a 1,650-acre wildfire in the Klamath National Forest had more to contend with Monday than flames and smoke. Weighing heavily on their minds was the deaths of three fellow firefighters whose engine plunged 800 feet down a mountainside.

A memorial service to honor the dead was planned for Monday evening. Forest Service members wore black mourning bands over their badges following the early Sunday accident.

“The purpose is to help the firefighters who were involved in the accident, help them through the healing process, to help bring closure to the incident,” said Klamath National Forest spokesman Brian Harris.

The U.S. Forest Service crew was one of a five-engine strike force based at Lassen National Forest in Susanville and dispatched to help with the Stanza Fire, which was ignited by lightning a week ago.

The Forest Service identified the dead as Heather DePaolo, 29, of Redding; John Self, 19, of Susanville; and Steven Oustad, of Westwood, who turned 51 Saturday. Two others survived – Ryan Smith, 20, and Alex Glover, 19, both of Susanville. They were airlifted to Mercy Medical Center in Redding, where Smith was listed in serious condition and Glover in fair condition, the Forest Service said.

“This has been a devastating blow for the families and for our entire firefighting community,” Ed Cole, Lassen National Forest supervisor, said Monday. “An accident such as this leads us to find out precisely what happened and to assess what can be done to prevent similar tragedies from occurring.”

The Happy Camp deaths brought to 19 the number of firefighters killed this summer as wildfires continue to rage across the West. During all 2001, 18 people died.

Little was known about the accident, but the dirt road the engine was driving on was narrow, about 11 feet wide, and the dark of night was made worse by smoke from the fire, according to Dave Poucher, Forest Service southwest regional safety officer.

Elsewhere in California, flames raging near California’s giant sequoias consumed another 5,500 acres Sunday, but the ancient redwoods seemed to be largely out of trouble, fire officials said. More than 2,000 firefighters on the ground and in the air continued to work on the western edge to protect 11 sequoia groves from flames that have caused an estimated $10.4 million in damage.

The 73,000-acre fire remained 30 percent contained Monday and nighttime weather, which was cool and humid, has favored firefighters’ efforts.

[EBUCK]

You know it! God help the poor SOB that starts one and just happens to be part of the VRWC!!!! New meaning to the phrase drawn and quartered to be sure.

EBUCK

[EBUCK]

but the dirt road the engine was driving on was narrow, about 11 feet wide, and the dark of night was made worse by smoke from the fire,

I wonder if the road was in disrepair due to restrictions on road building/maintenance in protected lands. Anyone know how to look that information up?

EBUCK

[nutmeg]

Thanks again, Grampa Dave. I checked out the site... great resource! I have it bookmarked to check on updates. Hope all is well where you live.

[EBUCK]

Notice how much of Oregon is Owned by the Fed?

EBUCK

[nutmeg]

Hmmm... yeah, now that you mention it!

[EBUCK]

Gotta be at least 65% but probably more. Whatever happened to "for forts and such"?

EBUCK

[Carry_Okie]

I think that is we FReepers can curb our language, and use logic rather than threats of violence, we oughtta speak out to the perpetrators of crime against our environment.

LOL! Some of us have been doing it for years.

[cake_crumb]

I don't agree that fire suppression is the problem, but the envirowackos have got a lot of people brainwashed into believing that. If you ignore the ignorance and bias of the author, this article is a good read.

Fires fuel debate over logging in the West

By SCOTT SONNER
Associated Press Writer

ELKO, Nev. (AP) – Those who favor relaxing U.S. environmental laws on federal lands say devastating wildfires in the West are helping build public support for more logging to thin overstocked forests after decades of fire suppression.

But environmentalists say the reformers are trying to exploit the situation, and the supervisor of the largest U.S. national forest outside Alaska says a balanced approach is especially important now.

“It’s sad it’s come to that but I think all the fires have brought some attention to the problem,” said Brad Roberts, the chairman of the Elko County Commission who testified at a congressional hearing that protection of the threatened bull trout is intensifying fire threats in northeast Nevada.

Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Elko, [sic...that's U.S. Rep. Jim Gibbons (R-NV)...retarded AP writer anyway] who hosted the congressional field hearing this past weekend, said the fires are helping forge the most support he’s seen in a decade for changes in the Endangered Species Act.

Gibbons, a senior member of the House Resources Committee, said the Endangered Species Act was “probably a good purpose as it was originally intended.

“But when you have 1,200 species which are listed – most of them in the West and most of which don’t have statistically empirical data supporting the listing – you have to question the purpose of why the act is being used and whether or not it’s being used effectively.”

“We’re laying the groundwork, we’re building cases about the science and getting the information out,” he said.

While efforts to rewrite the 1973 law have been pushed by conservatives in the West for years, Gibbons said he thinks such changes will win soon congressional approval.

“It’s changing as we see events take place, mostly out West, where we have large forest fires that are the result of the inability to pay attention to our forests and our rangelands because of some listing of a species that prevents any action being taken,” Gibbons said.

Environmentalists say the timber industry, aligned with Western lawmakers and the Bush administration, is playing on public fears of wildfires to promote logging.

“Their attempts ... have nothing to do with protecting communities and everything to do with protecting corporate profits for timber companies,” said Brian Vincent, California organizer of the American Lands Alliance based in Nevada City, Calif.

Bob Vaught, Forest Service supervisor of the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest in Nevada and the Sierra, said that as long as the agency receives the necessary funding, it has the authority to reduce fuel in fire-prone forests without changes in existing laws.

He said the political tug-of-war over federal forest management is not new.

“Throughout our history for almost 100 years, the Forest Service has dealt with situations where the politics are one way or the other. The Forest Service tends to be in the middle and tends to be beat on by both sides,” he said.

Vaught said thinning and fuels reductions programs are “important and necessary” in many parts of the West, but extremes of any sort must be resisted in managing forests.

“We need a balance of good, solid, sound management. While we’re going to always have fires, while they are always going to be a damaging component when they get in the wrong place at the wrong time, they are still going to be an overall part of the environment in the West.”

Rep Gibbon's Website

Environazi "American Lands Alliance" website (Which, BTW, condems logging in some links, and condemns the Forestry Department for not doing enough to protect residents from wildfire)