Tracts at fire's edge evacuated for now.Byline: Susan Palmer The Register-Guard BLACK CRATER Black Crater is a steep-sided shield volcano in the Cascade Range of central Oregon, located north of the Three Sisters and east of McKenzie Pass. Ice Age glaciers carved a large cirque into the northern flank of the mountain, and snow often lingers in its shady depths until late summer. FIRE SISTERS - Tollgate residents were allowed to return to their homes on Monday evening after another day of mild temperatures and low winds kept the Black Crater Fire in check, but residents in the Crossroads and Edgington communities remained under evacuation orders for now, firefighting 1. firefighting - What sysadmins have to do to correct sudden operational problems. An opposite of hacking. "Been hacking your new newsreader?" "No, a power glitch hosed the network and I spent the whole afternoon fighting fires." 2. officials said. The lightning-caused fire burning southwest of Sisters remained at about 9,200 acres on Monday with firefighters widening burnout Burnout Depletion of a tax shelter's benefits. In the context of mortgage backed securities it refers to the percentage of the pool that has prepaid their mortgage. areas along containment lines on the east side of the fire. The fire is about 30 percent contained, although containment lines exist around 60 percent of the fire, said incident commander Mike Quesinberry. Officials are using the smaller figure because the lines haven't been tested yet by significant winds, he said. The fire is still burning uncontrolled along its western edge, and that remains cause for concern, Quesinberry said. Forecasters are predicting winds out of the north that could ignite spot fires south of its current boundary. Forecasters are predicting more typical southwest winds Thursday and Friday that could push those spot fires east and north again to threaten Sisters. That's why Quesinberry will keep the current firefighting crews and equipment on hand through the weekend. Some firefighters widened the burn buffers along forest service roads to 300 feet on the fire's east edge Monday, while others hiked a couple of miles along the Millican Crater Trail to cut fire lines on the southwestern flank of the fire. There are no forest service roads into that remote area. Most of Highway 242 remains closed. The structural firefighting teams on hand to protect homes in the evacuated neighborhoods of Edgington and Crossroads, to the south and west of Sisters, respectively, have seen little action with no spot fires jumping nearby containment lines, said fire safety officer Marc Rogelstad. Firefighters have used the time to more thoroughly map the neighborhoods and conduct an assessment of homes for their ability to withstand wildland fire. Some are better prepared than others. One two-story home in Edgington with a cedar-shingle roof covered in highly flammable flam·ma·ble adj. Easily ignited and capable of burning rapidly; inflammable. [From Latin flamm pine needles pine needles pine npl → Kiefernnadeln pl pine needles npl → aghi mpl di pino as well as dead grass and brush close up against its wood deck was particularly vulnerable, Rogelstad said. Firefighters have a checklist they use to rate homes on a scale of zero to 10, with the lowest-scoring homes best protected from fire and the highest-scoring homes most likely to burn. Rogelstad ran through the checklist for the cedar-shingled house and gave it the highest rating because of the nearby fuel, the open space below the wooden decks, and the trees overhanging the house. "If a fire comes in, it'll run under the decks, up the walls and eaves and into the attic. This house is going to go quick," he said. A quarter-mile away, Rogelstad did a quick assessment of another two-story house, this one with verdant green Verdant Green is a fictional undergraduate at Oxford University, as featured in the Victorian novel The Adventures of Mr. Verdant Green, by Cuthbert M. Bede (a pseudonym of the clergyman Edward Bradley). He was a student at Brazenface College, a fictional college. grass surrounding it, no overhanging branches above the house and trees and bushes thinned in the yard. "They've got a green defensible space Defensible space is a concept first proposed by the architect Oscar Newman and developed further by Alice Coleman. It is the idea that crime and delinquency can be controlled and mitigated through environmental design. . It's really pretty good," he said. Another home in the neighborhood had a pile of wood construction debris stacked near an outside wall with a propane propane, CH3CH2CH3, colorless, gaseous alkane. It is readily liquefied by compression and cooling. It melts at −189.9°C; and boils at −42.2°C;. tank in the yard, both fire hazards that make firefighters' work that much more difficult. Summer heat has dried out the forest. Its moisture content at about 10 percent, Rogelstad said. The 1988 fire that decimated Yellowstone National Park Yellowstone National Park, 2,219,791 acres (899,015 hectares), the world's first national park (est. 1872), NW Wyo., extending into Montana and Idaho. It lies mainly on a broad plateau in the Rocky Mts., on the Continental Divide, c. had fuels with moisture content at 6 percent, he said. "We're at the point now where a match will almost light wood," he said. Firefighters will vigorously defend all homes, but when faced with a fast-moving blaze, they might have to focus their efforts on structures they have the best chance of saving, Rogelstad said. While there have been no spot fires in the evacuated neighborhoods, the driveways in Edgington were all littered with firebrands Firebrands is the name of an emerging rock band based in Singapore. The group has been performing and recording a blend of Hard Rock, Funk, Rap and Electronica since early 2005. , charred bits of wood and pine needles driven by the wind ahead of the fire. "These are the things that cause spot fires," he said, pointing to a blackened black·en v. black·ened, black·en·ing, black·ens v.tr. 1. To make black. 2. To sully or defame: a scandal that blackened the mayor's name. 3. firebrand fire·brand n. 1. A person who stirs up trouble or kindles a revolt. 2. A piece of burning wood. firebrand Noun with a telltale dusting of white-gray ash on it. "This one came in hot." Officials estimate the current cost of the firefighting effort at $4.4 million. They expect to spend $9.3 million before they're done. |
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