Blaze closes in on mountain communities.

Byline: Susan Palmer The Register-Guard

SISTERS - More than 1,000 residents in the Tollgate community west of Sisters were forced from their homes Saturday as gusting afternoon winds drove the Black Crater Fire to within three miles of the neighborhood.

State officials ordered the evacuation at about 3:45 p.m. More than 400 homes and about 1,030 residents joined the already evacuated Crossroads and Edgington communities - about 500 people - who were asked to leave their homes on Thursday.

Deschutes County sheriff's deputy Tim Edwards said the process went smoothly with residents out of their homes in an hour and 15 minutes, 45 minutes faster than officials had expected.

While Sisters residents were not given an official pre-evacuation alert, District Fire Chief Taylor Robinson told residents to be prepared.

The lightning-caused fire burning southwest of Sisters had almost doubled in size since Friday to 4,727 acres, pushing in two distinct arms east and north, with spot fires burning out ahead of the main body of the fire.

Flames were torching and spotting through rugged, hilly terrain at the edge of the Three Sisters Wilderness and into the Deschutes National Forest. Incident commander Carl West said the potential threat to Sisters had prompted fire officials to bring in a special management team from the southeastern United States. The team is skilled in complex fires. They'll take over management of the Black Crater Fire today.

It wasn't clear Saturday night just how many resources had been brought to bear, because people and equipment were still arriving, said Kevin Foss, lead field ranger with the Deschutes National Forest. He estimated that 700 firefighters were on hand and he expected another 300 or 400 to arrive today. Five helicopters, 16 bulldozers, 60 fire engines and at least 10 water tenders were also on hand.

The cost of fighting the blaze is estimated at $1 million.

Gov. Ted Kulongoski flew over the fire Saturday in an Oregon National Guard helicopter and said state and federal resources for firefighting are wearing thin.

But he said coordination among the Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management and other agencies is better than it has been in the past.

Fires are raging across the state, but the Black Crater fire is now the top priority in the Northwest.

Fire crews were divided into wildland teams attacking the fire and urban crews protecting homes and structures.

At a public meeting for residents, Sisters and Camp Sherman Fire Chief Taylor Robertson vowed to defend people's homes.

"If it does come into the community, my goal is we will not lose a single house," he said.

Firefighters took advantage of a break in the wind early Saturday that checked the advance of the fire.

With chain saws snarling, crews worked fast along Forest Service Road 1018, clearing small ponderosa pine trees, thick rabbit brush and manzanita in a wide strip ahead of backburning crews hoping to block the advance of the blaze.

A temperature inversion created a layer of stable air, allowing firefighters to widen fire breaks along the roads, said Task Force Leader Mike White.

While Rob Wood, a firefighter from Bend's Gottablaze Inc., kept watch on a backburn charring brush, dead grass and tree stumps, a Black Hawk helicopter dumped hundreds of gallons of water on a nearby spot fire of more than 20 acres.

A mile north, Hudson Griggs, a firefighter from Alaska with the Chena Hotshots, stood lookout on Fourmile Butte, watching for a change in the wind that would signal an end to the stable air and keeping an eye out for any new spot fires on the forest slopes below him.

His radio cackled occasionally with word from firefighters below: "It's starting to roll through the manzanita toward the ponderosa. We're pulling the dozer," a crew chief reported.

Griggs, who had been on the fire since Tuesday, said winds had been blowing pretty consistently from the southwest.

"That's what's kind of pushing it toward Sisters," he said.

By afternoon southeast winds kicked up again and pushed the fire onto private land, where it ignited slash piles in areas being prepared for logging and prompting the Tollgate evacuation order.

The Oregon Mountain River chapter of the American Red Cross has set up emergency shelters for evacuees at Sisters High School and at Bend Skyview Middle School, but volunteers said most residents were staying with friends and family.

Mary Richards, who attended one of two public meetings on Saturday, was staying with friends near Bend after evacuating from her Crossroads home with her husband and dog.

"You walk out, it's a very emotional thing," she said.

"You've got to believe it'll survive. You don't want to lose anything."

She and her husband took their most important papers with them and left everything else behind.

Sisters is no stranger to wildland fire.

In 2003, the B&B Complex Fire swept through 92,000 acres west of town, and the Cache Mountain Fire of 2002 destroyed two homes north of Black Butte Ranch.

The smell of burning wood hung in the air all day, with smoke hugging low and obscuring the normally pristine views of the Three Sisters, Black Butte and Mount Jefferson.

By early evening wind had drawn the smoke into a tower that turned the sun orange-red.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

DEVELOPMENTS -The Deschutes County Sheriff's Office orders an evacuation of the Tollgate subdivision near the town of Sisters

-No evacuation pre-notification has yet been ordered for Sisters, Cascade Meadows or Black Butte Ranch

-The Black Crater Fire has grown to 4,727 acres

-Gov. Ted Kulongoski flew over the fire Saturday in an Oregon National Guard helicopter

INSIDE Nation: Hundreds of firefighters battle six wildfires burning across more than 62 square miles of the Nebraska Panhandle / A9 Washington: Two wildfires were threatening lakeside vacation homes / C6