‘Smoke’ machine adds to busy time for Bend Fire

A flurry of fire and medical calls stretched Bend Fire and Rescue resources early Tuesday afternoon – and in one case, the “smoke” seen pouring from a Deschutes River Woods home turned out to be from a concert-style artificial smoke machine.

Here’s how Deputy Fire Marshal Dan Derlacki later summed up the way the situation unfolded:

At 1:06 p.m. this afternoon, only one BFD unit was on a call for service, within seven minutes, all fire trucks and ambulances for BFD were assigned to two fires and a major medical call.

This left no resources available for further calls. Redmond Fire Department was called to assist with one of the fires and local law enforcement assisted in the response to all the calls.

1:06pm Medical call response

1:09pm Structure fire reported on Navajo Rd in Deschutes River Woods

1:13pm Brush fire reported at 18th and Brinson off of Butler Market

Crews responded with emergency lights to all incidents. Luckily, all three incidents turned out to be minor in nature and little damage was done. But even the most mundane call can cause danger.

The threat to the neighborhood was real on the fire on Brinson, but the smoldering fire never was able to get going and was easily extinguished. This was good, because most of the department’s resources were headed to the possible structure fire in DRW.

Redmond Fire Department and USFS sent fire trucks to assist at the north end of town as BFD’s crews were headed south. The fire was found to be an abandoned campfire on vacant land.

The fire on Navajo ended up being not being a fire and was found to be a theatrical smoke generation machine left on when the occupants left the home.

If the fire on Brinson had been able to ignite flammable vegetation in the area, few resources would have been on scene immediately to help contain the fire. Once crews could clear the south end of town, they would have had to respond nearly 10 miles to the north to assist.

BFD asks residents and visitors to help keep our community safe by turning off appliances before they leave their home and if they do have a campfire, to fully extinguish it prior to leaving.

Bend Fire Departments’ burn regulations have all the safety requirements needed to have a campfire, even in the summer time. These can be found at any fire station or online at www.bendoregon.gov .