DCSO deputies fight vehicle fire at La Pine-area transient camp, help Redmond Fire on transient camp tree fire

La PINE, Ore. (KTVZ) – Deschutes County sheriff’s deputies battled a vehicle fire at an unoccupied La Pine-area transient camp Thursday morning, and in the afternoon responded to a tree fire near a transient camp in Redmond that firefighters had tackled, their second call to that area in two days.

Deputies were dispatched around 7:45 a.m. to the vehicle fire at the suspected transient camp on Old Ice Cave Road, west of Darlene Way in the La Pine area, Sergeant Jason Wall said.

Deputies learned the vehicle and surrounding transient camp were unoccupied, Wall said. They fought the fire for more than 40 minutes until Fire Patrol arrived to assist.

Wall said the La Pine Fire District didn’t respond to the scene, as it apparently was outside their jurisdiction. An investigation of the fire was ongoing.

Around 3:30 p.m., deputies were dispatched on a report of a tree fire near a transient camp off East Antler Avenue, about 1,000 meters north of Highway 126, near milepost 2, Wall said.

Arriving deputies found Redmond Fire & Rescue personnel already were on the scene and had contained and put out the fire. It burned a large juniper tree, about six feet high, and a patch of surrounding brush about 30 by 15 feet, Wall said.

Redmond Fire personnel determined the fire likely was caused by smoldering embers from a nearby transient fire they day prior, which they had responded to and extinguished.