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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.