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Latest AP story on the fire:

Nation's largest active wildfire threatens outback communiites

By JEFF BARNARD
The Associated Press
8/8/02 2:57 PM

GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) -- The Florence and Sour Biscuit fires merged Thursday, giving firefighters a stronger defense for the Illinois Valley against the biggest active wildfire in the nation while testing lines protecting outback communities on other flanks.

The Florence Fire stood at 296,000 acres of the Siskiyou National Forest and adjoining lands in southwestern Oregon and northern California.

U.S. Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth and other Bush administration officials planned to fly over the fire and visit a fire camp in Selma for a briefing and to visit with firefighters.

Because of its size, extreme volatility, and threat to people, the Florence Fire has been the top priority in the nation for scarce firefighting resources for the past week. The fire is only 15 percent contained and has 5,168 people fighting it.

Fire commanders hope to keep the fire away from the Rogue River Canyon community of Agness on its north flank, but the blaze still has the potential to break out to the west toward the coastal town of Brookings.

Wind gusts of 40 mph out of the northeast were predicted to test fire lines. The threat to the 17,000 people of the Illinois Valley on the east flank continued to ease.

"It kind of looks like a war zone up here," said Serene Ireland, owner of the Agness RV Park near the confluence of the Rogue and Illinois Rivers about 25 miles east of Gold Beach. "We've got military trucks, Red Cross vans, all kinds of earth mover equipment, big fire trucks. It's not quiet little Agness right now."

Vern Smithson and his wife had just finished unpacking after retiring from the Burlington Northern Railroad in Everett, Wash., to their dream home on the outskirts of Agness, when they had to pack up again to be ready to flee if the fire gets closer.

"I'm not really too nervous," he said. "We've had plenty of time to start moving stuff out. I'm concerned, of course. I've got a lot money invested in this place. I don't want the trees burned down around here."

Smithson said firefighters had cleared brush and layed out hoses around homes against the possibility the fire could jump containment lines standing against the fire two to three miles away.

The fires were brought together west of O'Brien by burnout operations that have consolidated and strengthened containment lines, particularly on the eastern flank where the Florence Fire has threatened the communities around Cave Junction, said fire spokesman Mike Ferris.

"That is a good thing," Ferris said. "That means we have a pretty solid containment line from north of Selma to the California border."

Weather forecasts called for a warming and drying trend to continue into the weekend, with winds out of the northeast, gusting on the southern end of the fire up to 40 mph. That was good news for the Illinois Valley, but bad news for the Wilderness Retreat subdivision on the Chetco River, where the fire was burning just 5 miles to the west.

About 70 Agness residents met Wednesday night with Incident Commander Kim Martin, who told them containment lines have about a 50 percent chance of keeping the fire from their homes.

"A fair amount of that line is in, and now it's a matter of getting it wider," said spokesman Mark Wurdeman.

Some residents expressed frustration that more firefighters were not sent earlier, but Martin said resources have been stretched around the nation, and now that the blaze is the country's top priority, help is flowing in, Wurdeman said.

After eight years of the lying Clintoons and the mediots spinning stuff, I have developed some fair parsing skills.

This is "Parsed from this story, and it does not sound good for Brookings and the Chetco Valley people:

"Fire commanders hope to keep the fire away from the Rogue River Canyon community of Agness on its north flank, but the blaze still has the potential to break out to the west toward the coastal town of Brookings."

"Weather forecasts called for a warming and drying trend to continue into the weekend, with winds out of the northeast, gusting on the southern end of the fire up to 40 mph. That was good news for the Illinois Valley, but bad news for the Wilderness Retreat subdivision on the Chetco River, where the fire was burning just 5 miles to the west."

If this big mother of a fire decides to go nuclear and head to the SW and West, it might not stop until it hits the ocean. The people along the Chetco River, in Brookings/Harbor need to keep a sharp eye on this current situation.

Granof8, you stay alert and safe for us!