Warm Springs Wildfires Grow to 32,000 Acres
Four large wildfires on the Warm Springs Indian Reservation have now burned more than 32,000 acres, and the threat to nearly 200 homes has prompted Gov. John Kitzhaber to invoke the state?s Conflagration Act so that fire departments from northwest Oregon can help protect those homes from the growing blazes.
The Office of State Fire Marshal has mobilized four task forces to assist with protection of threatened structures. Responding task forces are from Clackamas, Hood River/Wasco, Marion, and Washington counties.
The state fire marshal’s office has also sent five personnel from their Red Incident Management Team to manage the deployed structural protection task forces, protecting about 190 threatened homes..
Oregon’s conflagration may be invoked only by the governor and allows the state fire marshal to dispatch structural firefighters and equipment.
The Oregon and California Interagency Incident Management Team (ORCA) assumed command of the battle against the three largest blazes Sunday, in unified command with the State Fire Marshal’s Red Team, which it said deployed six task forces from counties throughout Oregon.
The Razorback Fire on the northeast corner of the Reservation was estimated Sunday evening at 20,239 acres. It jumped the Deschutes River and was burning on private and BLM land between Highway 197 and the river. The fire became very active Sunday afternoon and jumped Highway 197 near the junction with Highway 97, burning about 200 acres before it was stopped.
The West Hills Fire (formerly the Warm Springs Fire), located south of the community of Warm Springs, was estimated at 6,286 acres late Sunday. Erratic winds moved the fire to the west and south,
The Powerline Fire, northwest of Warm Springs, was estimated at 1,475 acres.
All three large fires had an estimated 10 percent containment as of late Sunday, officials said.
Meanwhile, Warm Springs Fire Management personnel were working on other lightning-caused wildfires, the larges called the Seekseequa Fire (formerly the Box Canyon Fire, last estimated at about 4,000 acres as it burned in canyons with heavy vegetation.
Much of the fire was lined with bulldozer and hand-built fire lines. The containment estimate as of late Sunday was 40 percent.
Warm Springs Fire Management and local agency personnel were staffing more than 15 fires. Over 300 lightning strikes hit the Warm Springs reservation last Wednesday night sparking more than 37 new fires.
Highway 197 south of Maupin was temporarily closed for a number of hours Saturday as fire crews burned out fuels near the road, to better secure the fire line, and it was closed again due to fire hazards for several hours Sunday.
The BLM’s Trout Creek and South Junction campgrounds along the Deschutes were closed as a precautionary measure. The river remained open to boaters, but river users were warned to avoid locations where firefighting helicopters were dipping water buckets for use on the fires.
More than 800 firefighters from local and regional agencies were assigned to the High Cascades Complex. The ORCA Team cited “excellent” cooperation between the agencies, private landowners and tribes during the firefighting effort.
The Oregon Mountain River Chapter of the American Red Cross opened and staffed a shelter in Warm Springs over the weekend, at the Agency Community Center. While all the evacuated persons were able to find housing with family and friends, Red Cross officials said meals were provided to several families displaced by the fires.
Primarily due to the Warm Springs fires, smoke blanketed all of Central Oregon Sunday, the worst seen so far over much of the area.
“Last night’s storm system has pushed the winds and has got us cause for the concern. Mother Nature still has part of this fire in control,” Warm Springs fire spokesman Bob Sjolund said earlier Sunday.
Sjolund said a new round of thunderstorms Sunday passed over the reservation and made for erratic fire behavior. But they also were accompanied by welcome rain, heavy in places. A National Weather Service spotter about two miles south-southwest of Warm Springs reported an inch of rain falling in just 15 minutes.
With more smoke billowing into the sky, some residents can watch the action from their homes with relative ease — but residents of 30 homes along Tenino Road on the reservation were told to evacuate Friday, as the Shitike fire chars thousands of acres.
The worry for officials now — will the weather give the fires creeping closer to more homes a break?
“Fires can be known to jump miles, with spotting, and we take no less measures when it’s surrounding structures, that’s for sure,” Sjolund said.
The smoke from all the blazes is creating quite the haze on the High Desert — and quite the potentially dangerous distraction for travelers.
“When people that are driving, we want to stress that the fire is an attraction — it’s not an attraction we would like,” Sjolund said. “We want to be known in Central Oregon as kind of a place of vacationing and things like that, so it’s distracting.”
Not distracting enough for campers on the reservation who aren’t about to be smoked out of their hard-earned vacation.
“We did have a few people cancel because they did have respiratory problems, and it’s a little smoky, but everybody’s been tolerating it and still enjoying the water.” Pelton Park Camp Host Vicki Helwig said Sunday.
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Saturday night’s story:
Hundreds of firefighters battling a string of fast-growing blazes on the Warm Springs Indian Reservation had their hands full Saturday night as two large fires made major runs and tested fire lines, while other crews worked to protect homes and other structures. One fire grew to the point where it burned along 15 miles of the Lower Deschutes River and shut Highway 197.
The Shitike Fire, named for the creek that runs through it, made a dramatic surge to the south-southeast late Saturday after crossing the Tenino Road, said Warm Springs fire spokesman Bob Sjolund.
All fire crews backed off the west side of the fire, which also was growing, and concentrated on protecting the Tenino Road structures, he said. The fire, which grew to over 2,000 acres, was moving into the Dry Hollow, which is two miles south of the community of Warm Springs.
Residents along Tenino Road had been evacuated to provide safer conditions for burnout operations. About a 3 1/2-mile stretch of the road was closed.
Meanwhile, the Powerline Fire also saw more fire activity as firefighters worked hard to hold the lines on the blaze, which grew to about 1,800 acres. Structural protection was in place for five to 10 homes, with evacuation alert notices issued to 15 to 20 residences.
The Seekseequa Fire, for a time named the Box Canyon Fire, has grown to about 4,000 acres, but no structurs are threatened. Fire crews were working in the landmark canyon, where the fire made some small runs.
An incident command team took over management Saturday evening of the Razorback Fire, which had grown to about 12,500 acre. It was burning on the northeast part of the Mutton Mountains and jumped the Deschutes River near Dant Friday night. Officials said it ws burning along about 15 miles of the river, and east up to Highway 197.
The BLM took action on the fire as it moved onto BLM protected land, as well as private land, prompting closure of Highway 197 south of Maupin to the junction with Highway 97.
The Lower Deschutes River was not closed to rafting, but fire managers urged rafters to use caution when floating between river miles 75 and 60 and not to stop along with banks where the fire was burning or interfere with firefighting operations including helicopters dipping for bucket work.
About 30 homes on one part of the Warm Springs Indian Reservation remained evacuated Saturday due to burnout operations, and 15-20 more in another area were placed on evacuation alert as crews battled several large blazes on the reservation that sent smoke blowing south into the High Desert, one of which shut U.S. Highway 197 south of Maupin Saturday afternoon.
The Razorback Fire had crews pulled off it Friday afternoon due to dangerous terrain and higher priorities elsewhere, and later jumped the Deschutes River onto BLM-protected land, according to officials coordinating the fight against the fires, known overall as the High Cascade Complex.
A Type II incident management team was called in Saturday to assess the fire situation and coordinate firefighting efforts, Sjolund said.
One of the smaller fires that broke out in the reservation?s forested area, the Powerline Fire, grew to about 1,800 acres and was threatening homes near the B-140/100 Road in the Sidwalter area, north of Highway 26, Sjolund said.
Structural protection crews were in place on that fire, and burnout operations took place to stop it from advancing, he said. Residents of about 15 to 20 homes there were put on alert for evacuation, as the fire remains a top priority, Sjolund said.
Due to dangerously rough terrain and unstable fire conditions the Razorback Fire, at the northeast corner of the Mutton Mountains, was left unstaffed late Friday afternoon, Sjolund said, adding that the crews also were needed to tackle blazes threatening homes and wooded areas.
Unfortunately, he said, that allowed the fire to jump the Deschutes River, onto BLM-protected land.
?The decision (to pull crews off the fire) was made by command staff with the mindset of life safety and property values at risk,? Sjolund said in a news release Saturday morning
On Saturday afternoon, ODOT shut U.S. Highway 197 from Maupin south to the 197-97 junction due to the Razorback fire, putting into place a detour on Hww. 216 between Grass Valley and Tygh Valley.
Friday night, 30 or so homes along the first six to seven miles miles of Northwest Tenino Road were evacuated and a Red Cross shelter was set up at the community center. They say it’s so fire engines and personnel can easily get through the area as they try and stop the blaze.
A hill literally on fire filled the air with smoke near Warm Springs.
“The terrain that we have, especially where these fires are at, the big ones in our Zone 1, that’s a flash fuel– grasses, sagebrush, juniper,” Sjolund said Friday.
And that kind of fuel means a higher chance of larger fires — and that has fire crews prepared.
“Mother Nature comes in and throws some fire on the ground, and it burns again,” Sjolund said. “I think there is an attrition that goes on for years. We learned to follow that pattern with history and today’s technology, and we just prepare ourselves for that.”
Several big fires ignited on the Warm Springs Reservation Thursday, all likely started from lightning storms late Wednesday.
Fire officials said Friday the fire now called the Box Canyon Fire on the Metolius Bench was moving west-southwest. Officials said they were keeping the Three Rivers community and residents along the Metolius River apprised. Also, the Oregon Department of Forestry and State Fire Marshals Office were in contact with residents in the Eyerly area — no stranger to destructive wildfires — to provide lookout and fire information.
Meanwhile, about 25 other fires sparked by lightning have been growing slowly on the west side of the reservation, with two major fires north of Olallie Butte and west of Mount Jefferson, in the Trout Lake area.
Officials said those fires are in mixed conifer and heavy timber, but were not being staffed because they are inaccessible by roads.
Many other fires have lines around them, but continued to produce flare-ups Friday.
Over 300 firefighters were tackling the reservation’s blazes. But with the rest of the region already coping with numerous fires, resources are limited.
“They said there’s 110 fires in Oregon, so resources are going to have to be from different regions, Southwest, maybe even further over,” Sjolund said.
Officials hope the public can be patient.
“Be aware of road closures, be aware of the potential of disruption in summertime vacations, especially in the northeast part” of the reservation, Sjolund said.
