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Lightning Ignites New Fires in Central Oregon 07/24/2002 By AP and KGW Staff Nearly 1,000 lightning strikes hit central Oregon yesterday afternoon and last night igniting several new fires across the state. Firefighters are now chasing the new wildfires, including one that has prompted the voluntary evacuation of campgrounds on Suttle and Blue lakes northwest of Sisters. Heavy lift helicopters are set to begin attacking the Cache Mountain fire this morning, said David Widmark, spokesman for the Northwest Interagency Coodination Center in Portland. Smoke billows skyward and spreads east near Summer Lake, Ore., Tuesday. (AP Photo) The Cache Mountain fire...

National Guard troops mop up Winter Fire to free experienced crews By JEFF BARNARD The Associated Press PAISLEY, Ore. (AP) -- Their cots lined up 12 inches apart, and olive drab tents tautly pitched in a grassy field, National Guard troops tossed footballs, listened to rock and roll and called home on cell phones as they waited to join the battle against forest fires burning across Oregon. Fresh from training after being called up by Gov. John Kitzhaber, 250 members of the 82nd Armored Cavalry out of Redmond were scheduled to begin mopping up hot spots and smoking stumps in...

National Guard troops to join firefighters By BRAD CAIN The Associated Press 7/22/02 7:37 PM PAISLEY, Ore. (AP) -- Touching down from a helicopter tour of fires across Oregon, Gov. John Kitzhaber urged Congress to boost its commitment to preventing future blazes in the nation's forests. "This is as much a war as the war we are fighting in Afghanistan,' Kitzhaber said at Paisley High School, which houses 814 firefighters hoping to contain the 31,500-acre Winter Fire in the Summer Lake Basin of south central Oregon. "Congress has got to put in a permanent appropriation to keep resources coming" for...

Kitzhaber Tours Fire Scenes, Guardsmen Arrive 07/22/2002 By kgw.com and AP Staff updated @ 3:20 p.m. Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber, conducting an aerial tour of Oregon's wildfires Monday afternoon, praised a group of property owners for taking steps to keep their homes from burning in the midst of the devastating Squire Peak Fire. Not one home around the community of Ruch was lost in the fire, although four outbuildings were destroyed. That fire was now 95 percent contained. Gov. Kitzhaber talks with folks in Ruch about fire conditions. (KGW Photo) Kitzhaber also said this year's early and devastating fires show...