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After ‘high’ danger warning, power line failure sparks fire

Scott Swanson

Fire Season might have been a bit delayed this year, but it’s here now – in full force, Chad Calderwood of the Oregon Department of Forestry said Monday.

ODF announced last week that it was increasing the local level of fire danger to “high” on Friday, Aug. 12, and that afternoon a power line malfunction sparked a 1¼-acre blaze on Pleasant Valley Road.

“Like it or not, it is August and the weather seems to finally be acting normal, with warmer temps, so that means wildfire season is on,” said Neil Miller, ODF Wildland Fire Supervisor in the Sweet Home office.

After cooler temperatures and a quick shot of sprinkles earlier last week, the energy release component rating was back at 35 on Thursday, Miller said.

The Pleasant Valley fire occurred on Ferguson Road, a private drive in the 28800 block of Pleasant Valley about 4:11 p.m., according to fire officials and Pacific Power. It was caused by a failed insulator that fell from a power pole.

Calderwood, also a Sweet Home-based wildland fire supervisor, said a piece of hot epoxy fell to the ground, igniting grass along a fenceline in a harvested hayfield.

By the time firefighters arrived, 15 minutes after it was reported, the fire had tripled in size, he said.

“It was initially reported as 30 by 30 feet. By the time we responded, winds had picked up a little bit.”

Calderwood said the blaze slowed a bit when it reached some blackberries, enabling responders to get a handle on it.

Four engines from ODF and five from Sweet Home Fire and Ambulance District responded, he said.

Ry Schwark, a Pacific Power spokesperson, said the outage knocked out power to 17,400 customers, mostly in the Sweet Home and Lebanon area. All of the traffic lights in downtown Sweet Home were out as firefighters responded. Power was restored at 4:53 p.m.

Schwark and firefighters said a similar insulator failed a couple of weeks ago near Pineway Golf Course in Lebanon, though it did not cause a fire in that case.

“We have many thousands of miles of line and unfortunately, those things do happen,” Schwark said.

Calderwood said fire conditions are expected to get progressively more dangerous this week as the weather warms and dries.

“It’s going to be critical,” he said. “Triple temperatures and an east wind.”

Criteria for a Red Flag fire warning is when humidity drops to below 30 percent, temperatures soar to over 90 and wind speeds are 15 mph or more.

“Any east wind, even 5 mph, is going to dry things out,” he said.

Local residents are asked to follow regulated-use restrictions and to report any abandoned fires they see.

“It’s August. Conditions are not going to ease up, from what we can see in the forecast,” he said, adding that he’s concerned that the cool summer – so far – after three years in which conditions were critical as early as June, might be lulling local residents into complacency.

“I hope people aren’t dropping their guard,” he said. “We’ve had a lot of unattended campfires.”

Most of those fires have been left by visitors to the area who are camping along Highway 20 and Quartzville Road, he said.

“Sheriff’s deputies have been dealing with a lot of campfires up in Quartzville,” he said. “Some of those are homeless and transient people and people not from the area.

“I think our folks around here know for the most part about fire danger. They care about this stuff.”

During Regulated Use, restricted activities on ODF-protected lands between 10 a.m. and 8 p.m. include:

– No chainsaw use on private property within or within an eighth of a mile of ODF protection boundaries during those hours. Industrial Fire Protection Levels, which cover industrial timber harvest and chainsaw use, are addressed differently and do not affect the public.

– Mowing of dried and cured grass with mechanized machinery (brush hogs, mowers, metal-blade weeders) is also not allowed between listed hours.

“If the grass is watered and green in your yard within our district, you are good to mow, but who really wants to mow in the heat of the day?” Miller said. He added that commercial agriculture harvesting with tractors and combines, etc. is not regulated by ODF public use restrictions.

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