30-mile fire front menaces southwest Oregon towns 07/30/02 BETH QUINN 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. From Our Advertiser 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...
