Fires burning on more than 438,000 acres across Oregon

Oregon Live/AP ^ | 8/3/02 1:59 AM | AP Staff

[Grampa Dave]

Fires burning on more than 438,000 acres across Oregon

The Associated Press

Major wildfires have burned and are burning on more than 438,000 acres in Oregon on Friday. About 12,000 firefighters are working in the state. The Northwest Interagency Communication Center is tracking at least nine major fires in Oregon. Top priorities for fire officials were the 150,000-acre Florence fire, the 17,000-acre Timbered Rock fire, the 38,000-acre Sour Biscuit Fire, and the 26,850-acre Tiller Complex.

LUCKY FIRE

Started: 7/29/02, 10 p.m. six miles south of Detroit.

Size:87 acres

Containment: 70 percent

Evacuations: None.

Damages: None yet. In heavy timber.

On scene: 168 firefighters.

Cause: Lightning

CACHE MOUNTAIN:

Started: 7/24/02, 15 miles northwest of Sisters, Oregon

Size: 4,200 acres.

Containment: 95 percent.

Evacuations: None at this time.

Damage: Two homes destroyed.

On scene: about 1,179 firefighters.

Cause: Lightning.

TOOLBOX FIRE

Started: in Lake County 07/12/02

Size: 86,794 acres

Containment: 75 percent

Evacuations: None at this time.

Damage: None reported.

On scene: 1,768

Cause: Lightning.

MALHEUR-FLAGTAIL COMPLEX

Started: 8-25 miles from Prairie City, 07/12/02.

Size: 86,794 acres.

Containment: 75 percent.

Evacuations: No evacuation as of August 1.

Damage: None.

On scene: 1,768 firefighters

Cause: Lightning

TILLER COMPLEX

Started: Outside Tiller, east of Canyonville off Interstate 5, 07/12/02.

Size: 26,850 acres.

Containment: 25 percent

Evacuations: South Umpqua Road closed at milepost 6. Fifteen residence threatened. Tribal ceremonial grounds and critical cultural resources are threatened.

Damage: No listed damage.

On scene: 1,051 firefighters

Cause: Lightning.

MONUMENT FIRE

Started: 9 miles southwest of Unity, 07/12/02

Size: 24,378 acres

Containment: 75 percent.

Evacuations: None at this time.

Damage:None.

On Scene: 1,154 firefighters.

Cause: Lightning.

FLORENCE FIRE

Started: 26 miles west of Grant Pass, 07/13/02.

Size: 150,000 acres.

Containment: 5 percent.

Evacuations: The entire Illinois Valley on notice to evacuate.

Damage: 3 residences and 8 outbuildings.

On scene: 1,546 firefighters.

Cause: Lightning.

SOUR BISCUIT FIRE

Started: 17 miles southwest of Cave Junction

Size: 33,287 acres.

Containment: 0 percent containment

Evacuations: None yet.

Damage: no

On scene: 436.

Cause: lightning

TIMBERED ROCK FIRE

Started: Unknown. 20 miles north of Medford.

Size: 16,925 acres

Containment: 20 percent

Evacuations: Elk Creek Road is closed except to fire vehicles. Evacuation area for all addresses along Elk Creek Road, 143 homes, is still in effect. No homes were immediately threatened by yesterday's fire activity and no homes have been lost. August 1.

Damage: None

On Scene: 1,163 firefighters

Cause: lightning

----

Source: The Northwest Interagency Coordination Center

[Grampa Dave]

This will get the thread started. More on the Illinois Valley fires, and that will be posted below.

[Archie Bunker on steroids]

Morning Grampa - Just rolled out of the sack. Hoping for favorable conditions today.

[Grampa Dave]

Good Morning!

This will get us started today.

Again those of you who are around the fire please post what you hear and see.

[Grampa Dave]

The first weather report looks good. Hopefully, there will not be any massive lightening storms.

How are you doing?

[Grampa Dave]

This is the thread for today re the Oregon fires.

If you post an enviral thread today, please link this thread in your reply section, and then come to this thread to provide link to your thread.

That way we can link all of this together, as it is linked together.

Thanks
Dave

[Grampa Dave]

Good morning!

This is today's thread on the Oregon fires, FYI.

If you post a thread that deals with the enviralist scum bags today, regardless of the subject, please link this thread in your thread. Then come to this thread to provide a link to your enviral thread.

That way we can link all of the various attacks the enviro terrorists are doing to us and planning to do to us.

Thanks, Dave.

[Granof8]

Last night's reports -

Florence Fire
Status: 188,000 acres Start: July 13, 2002 Cause: Lightning
Location: Five miles west of Selma, Ore., on the Siskiyou National Forest within the Kalmiopsis Wilderness.
Percent Contained: 5 Cost to date: $8.5 million Fire Line to Build: 61 miles
Structures Lost: 3 residences and 8 outbuildings
Personnel: 1,753 Injuries: None Expected Containment: Unknown
Today’s Resources: Eleven helicopters (four Type 1, five Type 2 and two Type 3), 53 handcrews (seven Type 1 and 46 Type 2), 62 engines, 26 water tenders, 35 dozers. In addition, structural task forces from many Oregon cities and counties are providing fire protection to residences within the fire area and along Highway 199.
At Risk: Portions of Cave Junction, Kerby, Agness, Gardner Ranch and Selma; private residences in the Oak Flat area in Josephine County and McCaleb Ranch; private inholdings east of McCaleb Ranch; Late Successional Reserve; Illinois and Rogue National Wild and Scenic River, and campgrounds.
Closures: Galice and Illinois Valley ranger districts on the Siskiyou National Forest west of State Highway 199 are 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 Marshal’s Office, U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, Josephine County Emergency Operations Center, City of Cave Junction, and Coos Forest Protective Association.

What’s New: Burnout operations between Selma and Kerby today, west of Highway 199, proceeded as planned. Columns of smoke were visible throughout the Illinois Valley, and some torching of trees was seen from the highway between Selma and Kerby. Light ashfall occurred in Cave Junction. All established fire lines held today, in the burnout area and elsewhere, and progress was good. Structural protection engines continue to be in place in Selma and Kerby as a precaution following today’s burnout operations.

Elsewhere on the fire, where fire lines have not yet been established, the west flank of the Florence Fire spread to within four miles of Game Lake. The fire’s north flank reached Silver Peak, and has moved to within four miles of Agness. On the east flank, the fire is now approximately seven miles from Selma and Cave Junction. The fire’s south flank has reached Chetco Peak.

Telephone traffic, landline and cellular, in the Illinois Valley is exceptionally heavy, causing problems for essential emergency management services. To relieve this problem, residents are asked to reduce the number of phone calls they make during this time.

A new incident management team took control of the west side of the Florence Fire at 6:00 p.m. today. This team is based in Gold Beach.

There will be a public meeting Saturday, August 3, 7:00 p.m., at the Illinois Valley High School, 625 E River, Cave Junction.

The entire Illinois River Valley remains under an evacuation advisory. The communities of Agness, Gold Beach, and Brookings are not currently at imminent risk. An American Red Cross Emergency Evacuation Center is open at South Middle School, 350 West Harbeck Road, Grants Pass. To call the evacuation center at South Middle School, the number is 471-7822.

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

Sour Biscuit Fire
What: Lightning Caused Wildfire
Started: July 13, 2002

General Location: 17 miles southwest of Cave Junction, OR
Current Size: Oregon (Zone 1): 18,337 Acres, California (Zone 2): 21,745 Acres
Total Acreage: 40,082 Acres Lat: 42 Deg. 2’ 17” Long: 123 Deg. 56’ 33”
Containment: 12% Expected Containment Date: Unknown

Resources Threatened: Kalmiopsis Wilderness, Smith River National Wild and Scenic River, Port Orford Cedar and Arabis MacDonaldiana plant species.

Structures Threatened: 1 residence, 2 outbuildings

Injuries: 0 today, 2 total for incident

Jurisdictions: Zone 1 - USDA-Forest Service, Region 6, Siskiyou National Forest
Zone 2 - USDA-Forest Service, Region 5, Six Rivers National Forest

Other Cooperating Agencies: Oregon Dept. of Forestry, Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service, Bureau of Indian Affairs, County Rural Fire Protection Districts, Emergency Operations Center.

Road Closures: Highway 199 is closed from the Oregon/California border to Hiouchi, CA due to the Shelley Creek Fire northeast of Gasquet, CA. All Siskiyou N. F. roads west of Highway 199 leading into Zone 1 are closed to public use. All Siskiyou N. F. roads and campgrounds east of Highway 199 are open to public use. Open fires are prohibited.

Todays’ Remarks: The responsibility of the Sour Biscuit Fire has been divided. The Broyles Type 2 Interagency Incident Management Team (IMT) is assigned to Zone 1. The Bennett Type 1 IMT is assigned to Zone 2.

Fire growth occurred in the head of Diamond Creek with limited spread elsewhere yesterday. Twelve 20-person hand crews, twelve engines, ten dozers, seven water tenders, three medium and one light helicopter continued constructing fire-line on the east side of Zone 1. The line is being constructed to the north to connect with a fire-line coming south from the Florence Fire. The two fires are less than two miles apart. Four 20-person hand crews from Sour Biscuit are temporarily assigned to the Florence Fire. Residents in the Illinois Valley are under a 24-hour evacuation advisory with a 30-minute notice to evacuate.

Resources on the fire: One Type 1 Crew, Fifteen Type 2 Crews, Twelve Engines, Ten Dozers, Seven Water Tenders, Three Medium Helicopters, One Light Helicopter.
507 people.

[Grampa Dave]

Here is the latest from Oregon Live, this morning:

Planned backburn spooks some residents

By GILLIAN FLACCUS
The Associated Press
8/3/02 2:58 AM


SELMA, Ore. (AP) -- Flames and smoke erupting from a planned burnout between a containment line and the highway made residents here wary despite assurances from the U.S. Forest Service that the blaze was well under control.

Firefighters continued using drip torches and flare pistols Friday to burn up the one- to two-mile strip of brush and timber to make it harder for the 150,000-acre Florence Fire to spread.

A dense cloud of black-and-purple smoke roiled over the Illinois Valley like an angry bruise and ridges of flame and gray smoke from the burnout were visible from the highway.

"What I'm seeing and what I'm hearing are two different things," said Shari Anderson as she watched the inferno behind Eight Dollar Mountain from her front yard. "It's scary."

Fire officials said the situation might turn the corner within the next two days, particularly if cooler and wetter weather arrived as predicted.

"On our present course, over the next 48 hours we may be in a position to say we have significantly reduced the threat to the Illinois Valley corridor," said Mike Lohrey, the incident commander of the elite Forest Service team managing the eastern flank of the fire in southwestern Oregon.

In all, more than 438,000 acres were burning across Oregon, but more than 200,000 of those acres were in the Sour Biscuit and Florence fires, burning within a couple miles of each other on the Siskiyou National Forest.

With confidence improving on the eastern flank, a new management team and 1,200 firefighters and support crews were preparing to battle the western flank, setting up camp at the Curry County County Fairgrounds in Gold Beach.

The burnout -- which removes brush and other fuels that could feed the wildfire -- was cause for smiles in fire camp, where commanders told crew bosses that everything was going as planned.

In some places, the burnout created its own wind as it spread up a narrow ravine that acted as a chimney, drawing the heat and flames along. Sounds like gunshots came from rocks and trees cracking in the intense heat. Some trees that were merely scorched took on a gray cast, their needles frozen as if the fire-driven wind were still blowing.

Weather was forecast to continue cool and humid through the weekend, with gentle winds and a possibility of rain late Sunday.

Though four of the seven structural firefighting task forces called in by the governor were released because of the diminishing threat to homes, resources to fight the wildfire raging in the forest continued to pour in, including 100 elite firefighters from Canada and fire managers from Australia and New Zealand.

Here are some of the other major wildfires burning in Oregon:

----Cache Mountain fire, burning on 4,200 acres 15 miles northwest of Sisters, 95 percent contained.

----Toolbox Fire, burning on nearly 87,000 acres in Lake County, 75 percent contained.

----Malheur-Flagtail complex, 26,700 acres near Prairie City, 90 percent contained.

----Tiller Complex, 26,400 acres east of Canyonville, 25 percent contained.

----Timbered Rock Fire, 16,925 acres 20 miles north of Medford, 20 percent contained.

[Archie Bunker on steroids]

Looks like some containment is occuring on Sour Biscuit. Air quality in the basin is lowest in history.

Biscuit & Lake Slemac (Florence) The camps are nothing like the Winter fire camps. More support units, more media & much larger.

[AAABEST]

Too bad you live way over on the Left Coast, I'd love to see you show up here , chainsaw in hand.

[Grampa Dave]

Thanks for your timely feedback:

A couple of days ago, I posted that I was concerned about the West and North ends of this fire. This is from your report, and it appears that those concerns were valid:

Elsewhere on the fire, where fire lines have not yet been established, the west flank of the Florence Fire spread to within four miles of Game Lake. The fire’s north flank reached Silver Peak, and has moved to within four miles of Agness. On the east flank, the fire is now approximately seven miles from Selma and Cave Junction. The fire’s south flank has reached Chetco Peak.

A new incident management team took control of the west side of the Florence Fire at 6:00 p.m. today. This team is based in Gold Beach.

It appears that if Mother Nature doesn't help with some massive rain. This fire will be heading West and North and to the Southwest.

Again a lot of this area is in the Druid Cathedral Wilderness Area where there are no roads, no timber or brush management for a decade, and where the enviral whackos will still keep fire fighters out.

So we could see a replay of what is happening on the East and SE side of the fire on the West, North and SW side.

The purposely miss named Florence Fire is now up to 188,000 acres versus the 150,000 in the report at the top of this thread. Probably most of this increased 38,000 is to the West, North and SW side of the wrongly named Florence Fire.

[Grampa Dave]

Thanks for the offer, but our chainsaws are needed out here on the West Coast.

Good Freepers, here is the thread that AAA was mentioning. A big battle against the Enviral Eco Fascists is starting in Floriduh.

Here is the link. Please take a few minutes to go to this thread and bookmark it. It is a critial movement in our efforts to get our country back from these land grabbing and rural cleansing Enviral Eco Fascists from Coast to Coast: (What could be the biggest battle for property rights this country has ever seen. )

[Archie Bunker on steroids]

They are trying to corrall the outdoorsmen in the everglades too. In certain areas they've limited them to only a couple of areas to launch evil airboats. Because of the increased traffic in certain areas, recreators have created wear & tear. the enviros then show the pictures all over the local news. The golfers & beach goers in Dade/Broward/Palm beach county get upset as they see their beloved everglades cathedral trampled & vote for more restrictions.

Friends in Florida are under assault too.

[Grampa Dave]

The Sour Biscuit acreage that has burned or is burning has really jumped this week.

I have a real hard time believing anything that comes from the Federali Pink Panty Wearing Florists in Kali trying to act like real Smokey Bears. They are all professional liars, phoneys and enviral agenda pushers.

Maybe, now they will have to start updating what is really happening in the Kali end of this fire.

[who knows what evil?]

Any idea on how many members of the Sierra Club, Nature Conservancy, and other tree-hugging organizations are out there on the front lines helping to defend their precious trees against this holocaust? My rough guess, from out here in east Tennessee, would be approximately ZERO. Is that figure in the ball park?

[Grampa Dave]

Our friends and fellow innocent Americans in Floriduh are under continual attack from the lying, bad science and anti American agenda pushing Enviral Fascists just like us on the West Coast.

These scumbag Enviral Fascists are working 24/7 to rurally cleanse every American from the country areas from coast to coast.

It is time for all Americans to wake up to the end goal of these New Nazi Eco Fascists. They don't want any of us in rural areas at anytime.

They declared war on us about 20 years ago. It is time we declare war on them. They are far more dangerous to our lives, our freedom and our safety than the al Qaeda thugs/terrorists. The New Nazi Eco Fascists have more power than our elected congressmen have, and they were never voted on re having this power.

[blackie]

Good morning Dave...

I'm off to the grocery store...

It's just a little hazy here in the South end of the Willamette Valley...

[Archie Bunker on steroids]

Those people don't have the courage to get dirty and put their lives on the line. The only time they get near fire is when these spineless punks are setting fire to large homes in the suburbs and auto sales businesses. Then they run.

Plus they don't want to have to interact with someone who hunts and eats meat.

[Grampa Dave]

I'm sure the answer is zero.

These elitist Eco Fascists don't really care about the forests. That is why they have set them up with their roadless agendas and no timber or brush removal to make them into an uncontrollable fire waiting to happen.

Each fire means more lumber and forest products have to come from their corporate donors who own vast tree farms, lumber mills and forest product companies.

Also, each uncontrolled fire is the ultimate Rural Cleansing Tool to get rid of us who dare to live the country. Either we get burned out, flooded out when the winter rains come after the burns, or our insurance companies cancel our home owners policies. Then we have to sell cheap to TNC or some other conservancy. Then a few years later they sell the property to the federal government for a nice profit.

[Grampa Dave]

Stay safe.

Ask Archie about the air quality in the Klamath Basin, thanks to these out of control Enviral engineered fires.