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