Posted on 08/01/2002 6:19:24 AM PDT by 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.
July 31, 2002
State heath officials issue alert due to smoke
SALEM - State health officials today issued a health alert, warning Oregon residents with asthma and other lung diseases to take extra precautions to protect themselves against smoke from the state's wildfires.
State epidemiologist Mel Kohn says people with asthma are especially vulnerable to the health effects of smoke.
Smoke and ash have affected some parts of the state, particularly in central and southwestern Oregon, for days.
Kohn says people should continue to use their medications, monitor their symptoms and stay in contact with their doctors. They should also consider remaining indoors and refraining from any strenuous activities.
State officials say 290,000 Oregonians have asthma.
This site last updated: 08/01/02 12:39 PM (NOTE: not every fire is updated each time the site is updated, but only as new information is received. Call the Information Desk with questions.) This website is provided as assistance to media outlets requiring statistical information related to the wildland fires in the states of Oregon and Washington. Active fire behavior, especially during period of increased wind conditions will cause increase burned acreage that may not reflect accurately " on the ground situation". Please note that the data and situation reports are based on formal incident summaries and situations reported locally may not yet be included or has not been validated for this summary. Evacuation questions should be directed to state or local Emergency Operation Centers (EOC) for verification. It is advised that media consult the data provided and then call the Information Desk for more specific, detailed information on the fire situation, It will be periodically updated by the Public Information staff at NWCC. Specific information may be gained through calling the NWCC Information Desk at (503) 808-2764. |
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Wow. I thought I was the #1 lawyer hater. I'm impressed. I would rather keep them alive, however, put them in prison to live the rest of their lives with the scum they defend. That's justice.
Well, it's just smoke and more smoke the last 24 hours. We watch the helicopters fly over our house with the big bucket dangling, first heading north toward Shady Cove, then west to Selma. If it hadn't been for the hard work of our county commissioners Jack Walker and Ric Holt and Cong. Greg Walden we would not have had a tanker base here. The forest service wanted it out.....can you imagine what we'd have been against this year with out it?
I heard on radio early that Sen. Ron Wyden, Or and Larry Craig, Idaho are asking for salvage logging...have you heard about it? I wondered why Gordon Smith wasn't in on it. But then he's busy pandering to the left for his upcoming election.
Congress doesn't have this power. Besides the treaties that supercede this legislation, the 14th Amendment prohibits it. It will be struck down. Dasshole knows that.
Do you think the USFS SEEKS out lawsuits on which to spend that 40% of their budget?
Absolutely they do. It is so common now that they even have a name for this type of litigation: A Sweetheart Suit. Sometimes the consent decrees are written before the intitial filing!
You see, you still have this idea that the Forest Service is what it used to be twenty years ago staffed by trained foresters committed to a carreer of public service. I am sorry to report that the collusion between environmental NGOs and USFS personnel is nearly complete, especially at the top, where many of the Goron's people hired out of NGOs with "conservation biology" degrees have moved into management positions while Xlinton's political appointees have gone on to executive positions at the same NGOs. It is literally a revolving door. For lower echelon employees to go to work for an NGO is usually an upward career move. No. The destruction of Federal land use agencies by the Clintongs and the universities is nearly complete. Retirements will do the rest.
As for the agency funding imperative, realize that when the US government enters into a consent decree with an NGO that funding the terms is no longer subject to Congressional discretion because the US government lost the case. The agency can actually use losing these lawsuits as a way of increasing their budget. Those suits allow the agency peons to spend their days gathering evidence or doing their bogus "science" to save the environmint.
Really, it's that bad.
From Ms. McKinney's home site:http://www.house.gov/mckinney/hl/nfppa.htm
The National Forest Protection and Restoration Act (HR 1396)
One-hundred and one years ago, in 1897, Congress made a very unwise decision. A rider was attached to the Interior Appropriations bill, opening national forests to timber sales for the first time. Before that they were protected. The result has been habitat destruction, agency corruption and lawlessness, floods, mudslides and enormous losses to taxpayers. In 1990, National Geographic estimated that over 95% of America's old-growth forests have been cut down and hauled to the mill. More recent reports estimate that 97% has been logged. If we do not act now, soon our children and grandchildren may have little or no opportunity to visit these pristine areas. Furthermore, according to an independent study, later deemed accurate by the Congressional Research Service, the U.S. Forest Service spent $791 million in taxpayer dollars to subsidize timber companies in their efforts to destroy our natural heritage. Not one dollar was returned to the treasury.
In an effort to stop this environmentally destructive and fiscally irresponsible practice, Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney and Congressman Leach (R-IA) introduced the National Forest Protection and Restoration Act (HR 2789). This important legislation would stop logging on the national forests, and redirect these subsidies into worker retraining, revenue-sharing payments for counties, and grants for development of tree-free paper and construction alternatives.
The National Forest Protection and Restoration Act makes perfect economic, as well as environmental sense. By no longer subsidizing the logging industry, we could provide more than $25,000 in worker retraining for each public lands timber employee and still have more than $200 million left over to reduce the federal deficit in the first year alone. By stopping logging in national forests, these areas could be used for recreational use. The United States Forest Service reported that the recreational industry provides 30 times as many jobs and 30 times as much income as logging. So, converting these areas to recreational use would not only preserve them, but would contribute to the growing popularity of camping, hiking, hunting and fishing.
Too funny. Tell Mud Jr. that my ex-secretary's boys can sing it too.
Right after I joined FR, she dropped by to see us with her boys and I was hunched over my new Sec's computer. I told her my screen name and her boys started signing that song immediately. LOL ....Learn something everey day.
I heard on radio early that Sen. Ron Wyden, Or and Larry Craig, Idaho are asking for salvage logging...have you heard about it? I wondered why Gordon Smith wasn't in on it. But then he's busy pandering to the left for his upcoming election.
Kitzbobo is the poster boy enviral bozo governor on a string, and Smith is their poster boy enviral senator on a string. He got elected due to the rat and enviral voting cults. I'm sure that Club Sierra and the elites of the ONRC shoveled tons of reelection money to him in the last election. So it boils down to money and voters come to him from the envirals, he ain't about to make them mad.
As Brainwave pointed out, the enviral fascists want zero logging of live or dead trees in federal forests. Then their big time donors who just happen to own tree farms, logging companies and wood product companies will have even a higher demand for their wood products. This eliminates the smaller wood product companies as they will have no wood to log and then sell.
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