30-mile fire front menaces southwest Oregon towns

CAVE JUNCTION -- Wildland firefighters battled to keep a 30-mile-long wall of fire from reaching the Illinois Valley on Monday where 17,000 people were warned to get ready to flee.

As the 70,000 acre Florence fire roared south toward the 20,000-acre Sour Biscuit blaze, firefighters dug a last-ditch fire line stretching along the western edge of the valley and southwestern Oregon communities.

Sixteen bulldozers worked the line on the steep ridges west of Woodrat, Tennessee and Eight Dollar mountains while 14 more wait along U.S. 199 in Selma, awaiting orders to join the fire fight.

Firefighters are preparing to set a 34,000-acre backfire that would be larger than most of the other fires being fought in Oregon.

"We are running dozers 24 hours a day," said Rick Hartigan of the Arizona Central West Zone Incident Management Team overseeing the firefighting.

If the fire hits the bulldozed line, they'll bombard it with fire retardant and water, but even with all that, fire officials told residents Sunday night, they weren't confident they could stop it.

"There is a very good chance that this fire is going to reach the valley floor," said Greg Gilpin, an incident commander for Oregon Department of Forestry. "It is so big and so awesome there is absolutely nothing you can do to stop this fire."

Fire officials warned area residents that the fire could reach the floor of the Illinois Valley today in a third straight day of extreme fire behavior.

Throughout the weekend and into Monday, the head of the Florence fire advanced a mile an hour with 150-foot flames and wind gusts up to 40 mph that threw spot fires up to two miles ahead. Three times the fire built plumes 30,000 feet tall and three times those plumes collapsed back into the fire with explosive force, further spreading the blaze.

"We have veteran firefighters who have never seen such fire behavior," said Hartigan.

"The forestry people all have their eyes rolled back," said Tim Birr of the Oregon Fire Marshal's overhead team. "This fire is kind of like the proverbial 5,000-pound gorilla that goes wherever it wants to go."

On the floor of the mountain-ringed Illinois Valley, firefighters went door-to-door on U.S. 199 from Selma to Kerby. At each spot the firefighters took a location fix with a global positioning system to add each building to the maps used for fire planning.

In addition, the structure firefighters assessed the defensibility of each house, noting which had fireproof roofs and brush-free zones that could be defended against fire and which were overgrown with trees and shrubbery and might be impossible to save.

"In cases where a home can be made more defensible, if they can take some simple steps, they will do it," said Birr.

But even homes that are well-prepared can fall victims to the flames, as two homeowners in Oak Flat learned Sunday. All 12 homes along the Illinois River had been singed on Thursday but survived, yet when the fire moved back through the area Sunday, two homes burned. Another home was lost at McCaleb Ranch along with eight outbuildings.

"There's higher percentage of nondefensible homes," said Kyle Kirchner, chief of the Illinois Valley Fire District and Josephine County Fire Defense Board. Homeowners are "interested now in getting defensible space, and it's too late."

Fire officials began making contingency plans for safety zones where firefighters and residents could find shelter should evacuation routes be cut.

Two of the four routes out of the valley to the south have already been cut off by other fires in Northern California. The only exits are north on U.S.199 to Grants Pass and by a remote forest road from Upper Deer Creek near Selma over the 5,000-foot crest of the Siskiyou Mountains to Williams.

"If it comes across through Selma and compromises that artery, we are preparing to shelter in place," said Kirchner. "We can now see the fire from Selma. As far as I'm concerned, it's imminent."

Fire shelters were being set up at the closed Selma School in Selma and the Illinois Valley High School in Cave Junction, both buildings made of materials designed to withstand fires that sit amidst several acres of cleared, defensible space. A third fire shelter planned for O'Brien had not been designated by early Monday evening.

With bulldozers working feverishly on smoke-shrouded ridges to build the last-ditch line to protect the communities under his care, Kirchner's thoughts turn to a new set of nightmare scenarios should the last-ditch line fail to hold the Florence fire.

"If it goes, now we're worried about the caves," he said, referring to the Oregon Caves National Monument 16 miles east of Cave Junction. "There's enough volatile dry fuel that we're going to have problems."

The fire is also moving northwest. Fire officials projected the blaze could reach homes outside Agness by Wednesday. It would have to jump the Rogue River to burn the town itself, but the fire, fueled by strong winds, has jumped the Illinois River several times, said Pam Leschak, Florence fire information officer.

A structure protection team was already assessing homes and removing brush and trees from around structures south of the Rogue River near Agness on Monday.

An 80-acre blaze closed a section of U.S. 199 near the Oregon/California border Monday. The Shelly Creek fire, burning up the steep canyon walls, was causing boulders and logs to fall onto the road, said Carol McCall, spokeswoman, Redwood National State Parks.

The fire also forced the evacuation of Patrick Creek Lodge, Patrick Campground, Bar-O-Boys Ranch, and a few houses near Gasquet, 20 miles northeast of Crescent City, Calif., in the Smith River Canyon. You can reach Beth Quinn at 541-474-5926 or by e-mail at bquinn@terragon.com.

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

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.

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)

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