C.O. wildfires: Mopping up – waiting for more

Nearly two weeks after lightning sparked dozens of major wildfires across Central Oregon and the state, several of the largest on the High Desert are contained or nearly so and are being transitioned back to local management for mop-up and rehabilitation, officials said Saturday.

Meanwhile, fire lookouts keep watch and initial attack crews tackle more fires sparked by the latest round of lightning this week, according to the Central Oregon Interagency Dispatch Center in Prineville.

Central Oregon firefighters responded to and contained several new fires Friday, more evidence that despite the heavy rain with this week’s thunderstorms, the hundreds of lightning strikes ignited more blazes that could pop up in the new round of hot weather.

Friday’s largest new fire was nine miles north of East Lake and was contained at one acre, COIDC officials said.

With the exception of one abandoned campfire, lightning is the suspected cause of the fires that have popped up after a thunderstorm with abundant lightning passed through Central Oregon earlier in the week.

Smokejumpers, helicopters, rappellers and engine crews have been able to respond quickly to all these fires keeping them small (less than an acre).

Three new small fires were found Friday near the nearly 6,000-acre Bridge 99 Complex of fires that began nearly two weeks ago north of Camp Sherman. All were secured fast using helicopters, rappellers and ground crews.

Later, another small fire — 1/10th of an acre — south of Cultus Lake, very visible from the campground, was being mopped up by “heli-rappellers,” they said.

Of the 80 smoke reports since Tuesday’s storms moved in with rain, hail, thunder and lightning, about 30 have turned out to be actual fires, all caught at very small sizes, officials said.

With temperatures due to rise back to the 90s, lookouts and dispatchers will be keeping watch for more smoke columns in coming days.

The Prineville BLM District, Deschutes and Ochoco National Forests and Crooked River National Grassland implemented campfire restrictions on Friday. Open fires, including charcoal fires, will be prohibited, except within designated campgrounds.

Please go to http://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/centraloregon/news-events/?cid=STELPRD3809645 for a listing of those campgrounds.

Here’s an interactive NW wildfire map provided by our partners at Oregon Public Broadcasting.

Here’s the Saturday morning update on wildfires burning around the region:

Fire Name

Location

Size (ESTIMATES)

Activity

Bridge 99 Complex

Deschutes National Forest

Bridge 99 – mile east of Lower Bridge Campground, 9 miles north of Camp Sherman off of FS Rd.

1490

Bear Butte 2 adjacent to Jefferson Creek and west of Park Creek drainage within the Mt. Jefferson Wilderness.

5,960 acres TOTAL

60% contained

Oregon Incident Management Team 2 is managing the fire. For more information on the fire: http://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/3963/# or

Information phone: 541-549-3219.

EVACUATIONS: All private lands along the Metolius River from Allen Springs Campground to Lake Billy Chinook (including the Metolius Arm) have been lowered to a Level II Evacuation Order. The Three Rivers Subdivision has been lowered to a Level I Evacuation Order. The subdivisions of Rim Park, Forest Park, and Air Park along with Cove Palisades State Park remain under a Level I Evacuation Order. The Cove Palisades State Park remains open.

CLOSURES: The following Forest Service roads, trails, campgrounds and lands remain closed:

Forest Road 12, from its intersection with Forest Roads 1270/1298 to Bridge 99, Forest Road 14, from Bridge 99 to its intersection with Forest Road 1400700 (Allen Springs Campground), Forest Road 1140, from its intersection with Forest Roads 1150/1180 to the intersection with Forest Road 1152, Forest Road 1154, from its intersection with Forest Road 1150 to the intersection with Forest Road 1140, and Forest Road 1420400. The Lower Bridge, Pioneer Ford, Allen Springs, Canyon Creek, and Candle Creek Campgrounds are closed. The Jefferson Lake Trail (#4001), Sugarpine Ridge Trail (#4002), Shirley Lake Trail (#4003.1), and the Cabot Lake Trail (#4003) are closed within the Mt Jefferson Wilderness. A 5-mile segment of the Pacific Crest Trail (#2000) is closed. The south closure is located north of the Shirley Lake Trail (#4003) junction and the north closure is located near Cathedral Rocks

Center Fire

Prineville BLM

Post-Paulina RFPA

3 miles NE of Post.

Private and

2,515 acres

50% contained

No additional updated information.

Logging Unit Fires

Warm Springs Reservation

Mt. Hood National Forest

Deschutes National Forest

North side of Bear Butte near the Bear Butte 2 fire

Haily Butte

Camas Prairie/ Logging Unit

Bear Butte 2 – North

Skyline

10,350 acres

30% containment

108 acres

6,261 acres

3,864 acres

116 acres

Pacific Northwest Team 2 (Schulte) is managing the fire.

For more information on the web: http://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/3973/

NEW Public Information Line: 541-777-2862

The Logging Unit fires received significant precipitation over a large portion of the fire area yesterday. The wet conditions allowed firefighters to make excellent progress with line construction and mop-up.

EVACUATIONS: All notices have been lifted.

CLOSURES: The road and area closures that are in place on Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs lands will remain in place.

Closures that apply to public with the exception of local residents: B-180/Hwy 26 Jct., B-160/Hwy 26 Jct., B-140/Hwy26 Jct. Closures that apply to all public: b-160 near the B-165 Jct., County Line Rd at the end of the pavement, J-100 at the Tenino Rd/J-100 Jct.

Pacific Crest Trail from Breitenbush Lake (Mile 2047.1) to Forest Road 42 at the Joe Graham campground (Mile 2083)

Ochoco Complex-

Ochoco National Forest Service

Prineville BLM

Lava Fire

Near the junction of FS Road 22 and FS Road 4210, near the NW corner of Big Summit Prairie

Fox Fire/Oscar Canyon Fire

3 miles NW of the North Fork Wilderness Study

Broadway Fire

S of FS Road 2630, near Peterson Lava

Antelope Fire

3 miles E of FS Road 22 near FS Road 900

10,172 acres TOTAL

32 % contained

191 acres

99% contained

9,978 acres 29% contained

53 acres 100% contained

21 acres

100% contained

Great Basin Incident Management Team 6 is managing the fires. The complex includes 4 fires (Lava, Fox, Broadway, and Antelope) on the Ochoco National Forest and the Oscar Canyon Fire burning on the Prineville BLM within the North Fork Wilderness Study area.

Afternoon thunderstorms dropped nearly a quarter inch of rain over the complex. The wetting and cooling effects of this precipitation allowed firefighters to use direct attack fire suppression tactics on much of the fire.

CLOSURES: The Ochoco National Forest has issued an area closure that encompasses all National Forest system lands from Forest Road 42, along both the north and south forest boundary to Highway 26 on the west, with additional acreage north of the Mill Creek Wilderness. The closure covers all campgrounds, trailheads, forest roads, and developed facilities on National Forest System lands within the closure area. The closure order and a map of the closure is located on the web at: http://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/3972

Pine Creek Complex

Now includes:

Pine Creek Fire

Jack Knife Fire

Black Rock Fire

Donny Brook Fire

Sherman County

Oregon Department of Forestry

Prineville BLM

Ash Butte Rangeland Fire Protection Association

Private lands

Donnybrook Fire

11 miles SW of Antelope

Black Rock Fire

3 miles NW of Clarno; NW of the Pine Creek Fire

Pine Creek Fire

11 miles south of Fossil, in the Carrol Rim Area

Jack Knife Fire 8 miles SE of Grass Valley.

102,002acres TOTAL

22,763 acres

87% contained

35,731 acres

90% contained

30,245 acres

88% contained

13,263 acres

100% contained

A Type II Western Montana Team (Fry) is managing these fires. All fires received varying amounts of rain yesterday from .01″ to 0.4″. A warming and drying trend is predicted through this weekend with relative humidity dropping back down to 25-35 percent.

Crews are beginning the rehab process on all fires, which includes cleaning up dozer lines and other effects of fire suppression efforts.

NEW Public Information Line: 541-763-0917. This line will be staffed from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.

NEW Information available on the web:

Donny Brook Fire: http://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/3980/

Black Rock Fire:

http://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/3977/

Pine Creek Fire:

http://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/3969/

Jack Knife Fire:

http://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/3975/

Shaniko Butte

Warm Springs Reservation

12 miles north of the town of Warm Springs.

40,575 acre

80% containment

Oregon Incident Management Team 1 is managing the fire. Rain on the fire helped put fire out in the lightest fuels, predominately grasses and small shrubs, but created some problems with slick roads and moving equipment. Focus of effort at this time is in the southern portion of the fire.

For information on this fire, contact the Shaniko Butte incident at 541-553-8190, or look for information on at http://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/3960/

All EVACUATIONS and CLOSURES associated with the Shaniko Butte Fire have been lifted.

Sunflower Fire

Umatilla National Forest

10 miles NNE of Monument

7,170 acres

75% containment

A Great Basin Incident Management Team is managing the fire.

A cold front continued to bring cooler temperatures over the fire yesterday. Fire activity was significantly reduced across the fire.

For more information contact the fire information line (1-800-923-6891) or find information on the web at http://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/3964/

CLOSURES: National Forest System Road (NFSR) 22 from the junction with NFSR 22 and NFSR 21 in Section 23, T6S, R26E to the south and east to the Section 20 & Section 21 border; thence southerly along the Section 20 & Section 21 border from the NFSR 22, Section 20 & 21 border junction to the NFSR 22 where it crosses the Section 29 & Section 28; thence south westerly on NFSR 22 to the junction with NFSR 23 in Section 29, T7S, R27; thence west on NFSR 23 to the junction with NFSR 2128 in Section 25 of T7S, R26E; thence northerly on NFSR 2128 to where it intersects with the Morrow County OHV park boundary on the northwest corner of Section 2, T7S, R26E; thence easterly and northerly along the boundary of OHV park to where the OHV park boundary meets the NFSR 22 road on the boundary of Section 23 & Section 26, T6S, R26E; thence northerly to the NFSR 22 and NFSR 21 junction in Section 23, T6S, R26E.

Ward Canyon

South Sherman County

8 miles west of Antelope

Estimated at 15,000 acres

The fire continues to be managed by South Sherman County.

Waterman Complex

Oregon Department of Forestry

Ochoco National Forest

Bailey Butte (private land west of Mitchell).

Toney Butte (10 miles northeast of Spray, just east of Hwy 207).

Junction Springs

12,520 acres TOTAL

90% contained

Oregon Incident Management Team 3 is managing this incident.

Hwy 26 between Prineville and Mitchell has REOPENED to two way travel. There is a restricted speed of 35 MPH and vehicle headlights are required when travelling through the area. Stopping within the fire zone is not allowed.

For more information, visit: http://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/3961/

Fire Information Phone #: 541-787-4321

Email:watermancomplex2014@gmail.com

EVACUATIONS: All evacuations have been lifted.

CLOSURES: Forest Roads 450, 2630, 150, 2200, 2210, 300, 2610, Buck Creek Road to its intersection with the east edge of the Mill Creek Wilderness and Forest Roads 650, 27, 2745, 010 and 2750. Walton Lake, Round Mountain, Crystal Springs, Wildwood, Ochoco Divide and Whistler campgrounds are all closed.