Small N. Klamath wildfire lined; pre-evacuation alert lifted

A small wildfire broke out Friday afternoon on the edge of the Antelope Meadows subdivision northeast of Gilchrist in northern Klamath County, burning just over an acre and prompting a precautionary pre-evacuation notice for more than 100 homes in the area.

But quick work by fire crews from the ground and air got a line around it, and by 4 p.m. things were “looking really good,” with the pre-evacuation alert lifted, said Echo Murray, dispatch coordinator for the Walker Range Forest Protective Association.

Murray said Saturday morning crews were still on the blaze, the cause of which was under investigation. While the fire earlier was estimated at about three acres, mapping after it cooled down showed it had burned 1.3 acres, she added.

The fire was reported around 2:35 p.m. Friday in the same area seven miles north of Gilchrist as the 2013, 330-acre Stagecoach Fire, which prompted evacuation of 120 homes.

This time, the Stage 2 pre-evacuation notification — to be ready to leave — was more of a precaution, Murray said earlier as she ordered in crews, along with the Central Oregon Interagency Dispatch Center in Prineville.

COIDC spokeswoman Kassidy Kern said three engine crews were on scene — one from Walker Range, two from the Forest Service — and a SEAT plane (Single Engine Air Tanker) plane had been ordered in.

The Stagecoach Fire, two years ago this week, burned an outbuilding — but as it turned out spared a vacation cabin that was thought lost — thanks to defensible space, officials said at the time.

A La Pine man was arrested on an arson charge, accused of leaving a fire unattended on BLM land that sparked that fire.