Winds drive wildfire in rugged forest area.Byline: Jim Feehan The Register-GuardMAPLETON - Easterly winds of up to 20 mph coupled with hot, dry weather fanned a 200-acre fire on private forest land near the Siuslaw National Forest on Saturday. Fire crews had the blaze about 30 percent contained by late Saturday night, said Craig Mackey, incident commander with the Oregon Department of Forestry. Mackey had no estimate as to when the fire would be contained or controlled. "We're at the mercy of Mother Nature," Mackey said. The weather forecast calls for clouds and cooler temperatures with a chance of a shower or drizzle near the coast. The fire was reported about 4 p.m. Friday along Sulfur Creek, about 10 miles southeast of Mapleton. The area is owned by Davidson Industries and the Campbell Group, a timber management firm. Firefighters are hoping for calmer winds, higher humidity and maybe a little rain, he said. "This is really frustrating - this is almost like August conditions," Mackey said. Rugged terrain that was nearly vertical in spots, with only one narrow gravel road A gravel road is a type of unpaved road surfaced with gravel that has been brought to the site from a quarry or stream bed. They are common in less-developed nations, and also in the rural areas of developed nations such as Canada and the United States. leading to the fire site, and shifting winds frustrated firefighters. About 100 firefighters, including 30 inmates from Shuttercreek Correctional Facility in Coos Bay Coos Bay (k  s), city (1990 pop. 15,076), Coos co., SW Oreg., a port of entry on Coos Bay; founded 1854 as Marshfield, inc. 1874, renamed 1944. , worked 12-hour
shifts on the fire lines. Eight water tenders were dispatched to the
blaze. As many as four helicopters provided an aerial assault Aerial Assault is a horizontal scrolling shooter video game where the Player takes the role of a Freedom Fighter who must destroy five targets, including the Vinsk (a aerial battleship that is clearly influenced by the Space Battleship Yamato), CB-53 Bomber, "El", and two , dousing
the steep ridges with water, while a forestry plane flew overhead
directing the ground and air assault.
"We're just trying to find a good anchor to flank it and pinch it off," Mackey said late Saturday night. At the top of one ridge, a log loader was destroyed in the blaze. A steep ravine 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. by the blaze contrasted with a lush, green stand of Douglas fir Douglas fir: see pine. Douglas fir Any of about six species of coniferous evergreen timber trees (see conifer) that make up the genus Pseudotsuga, in the pine family, native to western North America and eastern Asia. in the distance. A logging area with a lot of downed logs and slash also was burned, with flames as high as 15 to 20 feet charring the trees. Dry ground cover consisting of rhododendron rhododendron (rō'dədĕn`drən) [Gr.,=rose tree], any plant of the genus Rhododendron, shrubs of the family Ericaceae (heath family) found chiefly in mountainous areas of the arctic and north temperate regions and also of the , huckleberries, elderberries and vine maple also was singed. The fire's smoke partially obscured a reddish-orange sun and its plumes could be seen from Eugene. The fire was did not threaten any homes or campgrounds, said Greg Wagenblast, the evening incident commander at the fire. The cause of the fire is under investigation. Fire investigators will interview firefighters, witnesses and loggers who were at the site Friday, Wagenblast said. Complicating the 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. effort, some crew members were pulled off the Sulfur Creek on Saturday to fight a fire started by a camper at the 10-Mile Creek area near Yachats, Wagenblast said. The Sulfur Creek Fire is the third to hit the Coast Range in the past three years. Last September, fire crews battled a blaze started on a timber harvest site along the Upper North Fork North Fork, river, c.100 mi (160 km) long, rising in the Ozarks, S Mo., and flowing S, into N Ark., to the White River. Near its mouth is Norfolk Dam (completed 1944), which impounds Norfolk Lake and has a power plant. Siuslaw Road, about 15 miles northeast of Florence. Two years ago, crews fought a fire by Whitaker Creek, near Austa. CAPTION(S): Right: A helicopter drops water on a 200-acre fire 10 miles southeast of Mapleton on Saturday evening. The fire was reported 30 percent contained. Below: Firefighters pack their equipment out of a canyon after cutting a fire trail on the Sulfur Creek Fire. Thomas Boyd Thomas Boyd may be
|
|
||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion