Oregon Firefighters set own blazes in bid to corral wildfires

Oregon Live ^ | 08/01/02 | ALEX PULASKI and BETH QUINN

[Grampa Dave]

Firefighters set own blazes in bid to corral wildfires

08/01/02

ALEX PULASKI and BETH QUINN

SELMA -- A column of thick smoke reared its head near this Southwest Oregon town at sundown Wednesday, proof that firefighters had begun an important counterattack.

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Bulldozer operators and hand crews had spent two days stitching together a 30-mile line in the dirt, but until Wednesday night, fickle winds had prevented them from setting their own fires to protect Oregon's Illinois Valley.

"The wind has just been too squirrelly," spokesman Tom Valluzzi said.

As incident commander Mike Lohrey explained to residents Tuesday night, the strategy against the approximately 183,000-acre Florence and Sour Biscuit fires is to use controlled burns to seal off the U.S. 199 corridor from the flames.

As winds and temperatures subsided Wednesday night, hillsides west of Selma began to glow with the newly set defensive fires designed to halt the main fire's advance by robbing it of fuel.

Shifting winds had kept daytime crews from setting fires that might turn on them and overrun Selma, which is about 20 miles southwest of Grants Pass, or nearby communities.

The 17,000 residents of the Illinois Valley are under a 30-minute evacuation alert, which means they have been asked to be ready to leave as soon as they are notified, although emergency workers intend to start the evacuation 12 to 24 hours ahead of the fire.

Hoaxers pretending to be civilians deputized by the Josephine County sheriff's department have been knocking on doors telling residents to leave immediately.

Officials said that the evacuation will be broadcast on local radio stations and that officials charged with notifying individual residents will be police officers or firefighters in uniform, driving emergency vehicles.

By today, the Illinois Valley will be sprouting new yellow signs spelling out in black: Escape Route. Oregon Department of Transportation officials plan to make U.S. 199 one way with two lanes heading north, and Oregon State Police and National Guard troops will be stationed at key intersections to allow traffic to enter from side roads. No one will be allowed to return.

The buffer against populated areas on the fire's east is the focus, but fire behavior analyst Erik Christiansen cautioned Wednesday that "the west side and the south side, we just don't have a handle on.

The new elite fire management team slated to take over the west side of the Florence fire near the Rogue River by Sunday could have its hands full.

"There could be some problems in Agness," said Lohrey, who noted that the blaze is burning within five miles of Bear Camp Road. "We've got quite a cushion over there, and we are assessing that today."

Fire officials have already closed the popular backcountry route between Grants Pass and Gold Beach to motor homes and trailers.

"They will close it to all traffic if that threat continues," Lohrey said.

From the air, the most visible fire activity for the past couple of days has been plumes rising about seven miles west of Selma. The fire was not as active Wednesday as it was during the weekend. But a curtain of smoke hangs from there south 25 miles to the California border and beyond, obscuring much of the 180,000-acre Kalmiopsis Wilderness.

"The wilderness is burning," Christiansen said. "We can't fight fire in there. It's too rugged."

Should the Florence fire reach Agness, Biscuit complex blazes will have torched portions of four of the nation's wild and scenic river areas. The Florence fire has already burned sections along the Chetco and Illinois rivers in the Kalmiopsis Wilderness, including both sides of the river at the Illinois' famed white-water rapid, Submarine Hole.

The Sour Biscuit and Florence fires were still thought to be separated by two to three miles Wednesday.

"Every day they say they're going to run together, but there's an old burn there that keeps slowing it down," said John Fowler, planning section chief on the Sour Biscuit fire.

The Sour Biscuit fire has blackened areas along the Smith River in California's Six Rivers National Forest.

Sour Biscuit incident commander Paul Broyles said his crews will be ready to burn out a safety line along their end of the 30-mile "last ditch" bulldozer line when similar work is completed on the Florence fire to the north.

"We'll have one, hopefully, seamless east side," he said.

Fire experts warned that successful backfires alone won't protect threatened homes and communities because conditions still exist for a return of plume-dominated fire that could shoot spot blazes two to three miles ahead.

"Just the fact that we get the line in and black doesn't mean the Illinois Valley is safe," said Greg Gilpin of the Oregon Department of Forestry.

If either fire makes a run toward town, the air attack would include retardant bombers, and helicopters currently dropping water would switch to retardant drops.

"Air tanker support is available to us if we needed to get that in here," he said. "And we have the ability to get retardant into the ships we have."

Structural fire crews continued preparing against the possibility of the fire jumping lines by assessing and mapping homes and clearing away brush and trees from residences.

Ron Brood, 66, watched Wednesday as crews chain-sawed through junipers, muggo pines and ponderosa behind his home southwest of Selma.

"I thought if it was green it wouldn't be a problem," Brood said of trees and brush in his yard.

Nearby, on the eastern edge of Eight Dollar Mountain, bulldozer operator Chad Oilar pushed through foxtail and brush to cut a secondary defense line in case the primary line west of the mountain fails.

There's a special concern in Selma, which stands in the shadow of Eight Dollar Mountain, that the fire could enter the valley there.

"If it's going to come out, I'm predicting it's going to come out there to the valley floor," said Tony Sciacca of the operations team managing the Florence fire.

As of Wednesday morning, the fire was creeping down slopes one to two feet per minute, with 1- to 2-foot flames, but running up slopes at 70 to 80 feet per minute with 8-foot flames, said Christiansen, the fire behavior analyst. The fire was still six miles from the valley communities, but fire managers were wary because earlier this week the fire was moving one mile an hour, covering eight miles on Sunday alone.

[WaterDragon]

Is this info getting into the mainstream media at all? Checking with friends around the country, I'm hearing they don't know that Oregon has been set in flames by policies of the Democrats and their environmentalists!

[BOBTHENAILER]

A ping for those of you fighting the Green Demons from Hell in your areas.

Thanks for the Ping. Will always be fighting the Greenie's from Hell in all areas in all times, forever.

[Grampa Dave]

Looters have been around for centuries when disasters have happened.

This is why a lot of people don't want to leave their homes in this area.

You have to wonder how many of these potential looters are the Green Fringes of society on welfare, who hate anyone who owns private property. They are the types that trespass private property to spike trees, sit in trees and set fires for their agendas.

Is your trip north still planned. If so you might want to go to yesterday's thread to bookmark some good new sources re what is happening up there.

[justshe]

I think it is extremely important that we continue to pressure Senators, especially GOP Senators who have stated they plan to offer legislation similar to the Daschle amendment which exempted South Dakota forests from the Nat'l Forest Mangement Plan and the environmental restrictions.

It is critical that this legislation for at-risk-forests be enacted this year. If we don't get this in place, and START cleaning up our forests, we will be having this same discussion NEXT fire season. I urge all to contact their Senators..whether Dem or GOP and let them know if it's good enough for Daschle's state...it's good enough for ALL states. These are NATIONAL FORESTS....not just TOM'S Personal Preserve.

[Granof8]

Fire Information Update
Florence Fire
Wednesday, July 31, 2002 08:00 pm
Fire Information Center: (541) 592-1029


Status: 150,000 acres Start: July 13, 2002 Cause: Lightning storm
Location: 5 miles west of Selma, Oregon on the Siskiyou National Forest within the Kalmiopsis Wilderness.
Percent Contained: 5 percent Cost to date: $6 million Line to Build: 61 miles
Structures Lost: 3 residences and 8 outbuildings
Personnel: 1,500 total personnel Injuries: None Expected Containment: Unknown
Today’s Resources: 15 helicopters (5 Type-1, 6-Type-2 and 4-Type 3), 31-handcrews (9-Type 1 and 30-Type 2), 84 engines, 12 water tenders, 27 dozers. In addition 7 structural task forces (110 people) from all over the state are providing fire protection to residences within the fire area and along Highway 199.
At Risk: Portions of the town of Cave Junction, Kerby, Agness, Gardner Ranch and Selma, private residences in the Oak Flat area and McCaleb Ranch, private inholdings east of McCaleb Ranch, Late Successional Reserve, Illinois and Rogue National Wild and Scenic River, campgrounds.
Closures: Galice and Illinois Valley Ranger Districts on the Siskiyou National Forest west of State Highway 199 is closed to all public access due to extreme fire conditions. The Bear Camp road #2300 is exempt from this closure.
Cooperating Agencies: Oregon Department of Forestry; Oregon National Guard; Illinois Valley Fire District; Oregon State Police; Josephine County Sheriff’s Dept; American Red Cross; Oregon State Fire Marshall’s Office; U.S. Forest Service; Bureau of Land Management; Josephine County Emergency Operations Center.

What’s New: Firefighters today are continuing to construct and reinforce fire line on the east flank of the fire, west of Illinois Valley communities. The fire has moved to within four miles of Game Lake on the west flank, to Silver Peak on the north flank, to within five miles of Selma and Cave Junction on the east flank and to Chetco Peak on the south flank. Dozer and hand lines have been established along the eastern flank from the Chrome Ridge Road, north of Selma, to the California border. Firefighters today will continue to reinforce this line, preparing the north line of Div. D for a controlled burnout when weather conditions allow. The burnout will be done in increments to keep the fire from crossing the established line.

The entire Illinois River Valley is now under a 30-minute evacuation notice. Structural and wildland fire resources have been positioned to protect residences in the valley. The communities of Agness, Goldbeach, and Brookings are not currently at imminent risk.

A Red Cross shelter has been opened in Grants Pass at the South Middle School (541-890-0612).

A Red Flag Warning for strong northerly winds and low relative humidities at the ridge tops has been issued until noon Thursday.

Pacific Northwest National Incident Management Team 2
Mike Lohrey, Incident Commander

[WaterDragon]

I most emphatically agree!

[Grampa Dave]

You posted, "Is this info getting into the mainstream media at all? Checking with friends around the country, I'm hearing they don't know that Oregon has been set in flames by policies of the Democrats and their environmentalists!"

Naah! As usual when fires like these happen in remote areas as a result of the Green Eco Terrorism Agendas, there is a spiking of the fire news by the Green oriented and controlled mediots.

In 1999 there was a massive out of control fire east of Eureka, where Tubebender lives. The area was isolated and there was no news down here in the Bay Area.

There had been a terrific high wind/loads of rain winter storm in December 1995. This knocked down thousands of trees over 100,000+ acre area. The good foresters said that the fallen trees needed to be cleaned asap in 1996 to prevent a future fire hazard.

Congress actually budgeted enough money to clear out the fallen trees.

The enviral whackos and their ACLU lawyers got into action and no removal of the dead trees happened. The Green enviral scumbags pocketed money and the trees laid there.

Then in August of 1999 the fire started in this tinder box area. This was during the time that the Forestry Service became the Florist Service under Babbit and Clintoon.

They threw a news black out. circled the fires and held hands while chanting Druid hymnals. The fires burned until the fall rains started.

The Indian tribes threw the Florist Service people off their reservations or banned them. They had to fight the fires to save their homes and businesses.

We knew nothing of this fire until we drove from the Wine Country to Brookings in September for our annual SW Oregon visit. I saw the smoke in Eureka and north as we started down the hill on 101 to approach the Eureka metro area. I comment to my wife that there was a big fire some where. She laughed as she had not heard about it via her news programs.

Thirty minutes later, she was not laughing as we drove by electronic signs warning about the severe smoke for the next 80 to 100 miles.

The Floristry Service has been playing games on this fire. The Kali Services have zero updates on the Biscuit Fire and other fires. The Oregon Florist Service people called the fire the Florence Fire. This was a deliberate ruse to mislead Oregonians and others to where the fire was.

They did not want to say that the Kamiliopis Wilderness Area was blazing and that nothing was being done during the first week to stop it.

Now that doing nothing has resulted in 17,000 people being at risk. A couple of days ago, they got serious and moved in with the bull dozers and called in the huge helicopter with water buckets.

Has any major news outlet in Portland actually said that the Kamiliopis Wilderness is burning up? Or are they still calling it the Florence Fire to mislead the sheeple in Portland?

However, in 2002, we have the internet, Free Republic and Fox News to get the word out.

[glock rocks]

A sign with the word "pray" written on it sits in front of a house on Laurel Road in Cave Junction, Ore., Wednesday, July 31, 2002, in reaction to the news that the Florence fire is not contained and now covers more than 145,000 acres in the Illinois Valley of southwestern Oregon. (AP Photo/Greg Wahl-Stephens)
- Jul 31 6:22 PM ET

[dixiechick2000]

I forgot to mention that the humidity is rising...
good news.

Bumping...

[Grampa Dave]

I totally agree. If cutting trees and removal of trees is good for Da$$hole's state, it is good for the rest of America.

However, the Green Terrorists will call in their Green Terrorist Trial Lawyers to fight the removal of even a single dead tree.

They don't want these forests cleared of a single tree that is alive or dead. That makes the trees in the Corporate Forests, whose owners give massive amounts of money to the Green Terrorists worth even more.

Last but not least, these uncontrolled wildfires are the best rural cleansing tool the Greens have to rurally cleanse Americans from their Druid Cathedral areas, (we used to call them our forests).

[Grampa Dave]

Thanks! These innocent people need the prayers of the nation!

[Mudboy Slim]

"May the stock market continue to erase the damage done by the Rat Crooks in charge of the corporations which lied to us big time since the Clintoons made our White House into the outhouse."

Yep...although after receiving inside information, I wisely transferred my humongous personal wealth into Real Estate and we're rockin' in this market!!

Good luck with the fires, my FRiend...MUD

[Mudboy Slim]

"Greenie's from Hell" equals "Socialists in Drag"...MUD

[Grampa Dave]

The link below is the Weather Link for the Kalmiopsis Wilderness area. The temps are on the side of the firefighter with increase humidity. However, there could be gusts of wind from the North at 49 miles this afternoon. That could get dicey: (Link to Kalmiopsis Wilderness Area Weather Forecast)

[madfly]

ping

[madfly]

bttt

[Grampa Dave]

Thanks for the pinging and the bumping!

[Grampa Dave]

Tiny community of Agness, waits...and waits... for the flames


By GILLIAN FLACCUS
The Associated Press
8/1/02 3:20 AM


AGNESS, Ore. (AP) -- Two days ago, Traci Shields put 24 sprinklers around her house, cleaned debris out of the gutters and moved all her belongings seven miles down the road to Illahae Lodge.

The U.S. Forest Service told this tiny Rogue River community the raging 145,000-acre Florence Fire would be at their doorstep within 48 hours. Residents scrambled to prepare.

"They had us in a panic two days ago," she said Wednesday. "We're ready now, the whole Agness community is ready and we'll just wait."

But 48 hours had come and gone Wednesday, and the flames were still about eight miles from this remote outpost that caters to whitewater rafters.

The fire, which is threatening 17,000 homes on its eastern flank, hasn't moved any closer to the outposts of Agness, Illahae and Oak Flat on its northern front. The wind blew steadily from the north Tuesday and Wednesday, pushing it away from Agness, but the town was not out of danger yet, said Richard Nieto, Forest Service branch director for the Florence Fire.

"Right now, the fire's pushing itself back into itself. It could make a move toward Agness, but it would take a good push," he said.

A pink haze of smoke hovered above the mountains Wednesday evening, clearly visible from the town. Residents gathered at the Cougar Lane Lodge, one of three restaurants in town, to talk about the fire and drink beer.

They said they were relieved it was holding back, but blamed the Forest Service for alarming them unnecessarily several days ago and not sending more crews to defend their town.

They were also upset that the fire camp was set up 14 miles west of Agness, instead of closer to their homes.

"We're kind of on the outer edge here, so we don't count," said Robert Goodman, who cut short a trip to Los Angeles to defend his home. "It'd be nice to see some people over here going after it."

Nieto said crews were concentrating their efforts on the fire's southern and eastern sides because that's where the wind posed a threat. He also said Forest Service and local teams began on Monday to triage homes in the communities of Oak Flat, Agness and Illahae.

Crews cut bulldozer lines around houses in Oak Flat on Wednesday, where the flames posed the greatest threat.

"I'm counting that they're right to put all their resources there on the east side (of the fire)," said Don Cross, who put a sleeping bag and air mattress in his Jeep and a prepared a carrier for his cat, Cali.

"If it heads north, it's not gonna stop at Agness," he said. "There's forest all the way to Canada."

---

The good news for Agness is that the winds from the North should stay from the North until at least this weekend.

However, that may not be good news for those south of the misnamed Florence Fire, the 17,000 innocents who live in the Illinois River Valley on south.

[Carry_Okie]

After the fires of the year 2000, when 7 million acres burned, Babbit arranged for $2 Billion to be released for thinning projects.

Guess where the money went?

Lawyers. The RICOnuts sued nearly every project the USFS attempted. When the USFS settles they pay the RICOnuts for their costs. Now lest you think that the Forest Service bureaucracy wants it any other way, remember that 40% of the USFS budget is for legal expenses. More is spent satisfying consent decrees or documenting cases.

So, you want Congress to appropriate the money for forest thinning. Why should we fund the enemy? Do you really think that a Federal Judge won't toss Dasshole's exemption? I'd bet he expects it.

[blackie]

Stop the attacks by the wacko, extreme left-wing, enviro-nazis terrorist's on our Freedoms !!

Freedom Is Worth Fighting For !!

Molon Labe !!