Crews tackle wildfire on Warm Springs Indian Reservation

About 60 firefighters were back doing mop-up work Sunday on a nearly 10-acre wildfire in logging slash and timber on the west side of Warm Springs Indian Reservation, having encircled it during the overnight hours.

Hand and bulldozer lines were completed in a night of work that ended around 3 a.m., said Warm Springs Fire Management dispatcher Gerald Cardenas. It was mapped at 9.9 acres.

The fire was reported Saturday at Fort Butte, about a mile north of Olallie Butte along the western border of the reservation, about a half-mile from the boundary with the Mt. Hood National Forest, officials said.

Four engine crews, a bulldozer, the Warm Springs Hotshots and the Warm Springs fuels crew tackled the fire late Saturday in steep terrain of logging slash and partially into a timber stand. It was described as a low-intensity fire, creeping and smoldering, with few open flames, but was quite early for such a fire in the high elevation.

Cardenas said crews would be back on the fire lines Monday for more mop-up work and patrols for hot spots to douse.