Frenchglen appears spared by growing blaze

The small community of Frenchglen, 60 miles south of Burns, was breathing a sigh of relief Thursday after firefighters stopped a massive wildfire from ripping through town.

“Yesterday was sort of a scary day,” John Ross, owner of the historic Frenchglen Hotel, said Thursday. “The day before, we had some smoke, but the fire was mainly up on top (of the canyon).”

By late Thursday night, after my visit to the historic town, the fire had exploded to about 110,000 acres, and Frenchglen remained under a Level 2 evacuation alert, meaning to be ready to leave at a moment’s notice and flee to Burns, about 60 miles to the north.

On Wednesday, fire bosses took to the air to survey the state’s second-largest active wildfire, both burning vast acreages in the remote southeast corner of the state.

From their vantage point, flames could be seen racing across the dry, barren land, being pushed by shifting winds and scorching temperatures.

“Well, It’s been a little unnerving at times,” Ross said. “Yesterday (Wednesday) morning was probably sort of the spookiest time.”

That’s when flames from the fire came within a mile of the small community.

“You couldn’t tell from the thickness of the smoke where it was,” said Ross. “So that was probably the spookiest thing.”

Fire crews lit a backburn in hopes of stopping the fire from coming into town, a move that proved successful.

Ken Gregor, operation section chief for the firefighting forces, expressed optimism: “We feel really good that that’s not going to be an issue any more, as far as the town of Frenchglen goes.”

But as the afternoon winds picked up again Thursday, a column of smoke could be seen bursting into the sky as far away as Burns.

Thursday afternoon, crews planned to back burn on the northern flank of the fire ,in hopes of slowing it down and building a stronger line.

“You know, the heaviest emphasis was up along the north side,” said Gregor. “We’ve got roughly 17 miles of open line and some moderate to active fire behavior.”

As the day went on, crews made some progress, but it was all in the hands of Mother Nature.

“We’re hoping Mother Nature will work with us on this,” said Gregor. “Hopefully we can have a successful operation over the next 24 hours in getting a hook on this fire.”