Staff
That little bit of rain and cool weather last week didn’t do anything to bring down the fire danger, local officials say.
The Industrial Fire Precaution Level rose to Level III on July 30, while the fire danger alert signs at local forestry agencies remained at “high.”
All of the weather indices are present for Level III, something that Sweet Home doesn’t reach normally until later in August, said Craig Pettinger, Sweet Home Unit forester with the Oregon Department of Forestry. Also, half of the Sweet Home Unit’s office is working on the Douglas Complex fire in southern Oregon.
That fire had reached more than 35,000 acres as of 11 a.m. on Monday, threatening approximately 470 homes, according to an ODF report. The Douglas Complex is the top priority, nationally. It’s burning through heavy timber and brush, which are typically more oily than the fuels around Sweet Home.
The Douglas County fire is actually three separate blazes located approximately seven miles north of Glendale in southern Douglas County. As of noon on Monday, they were 16 percent contained, with hotter and drier weather expected in the area.
The Brimstone Fire in northern Josephine County was up to nearly 2,400 acres Monday morning.
All of the large Southern Ore-gon fires are lightning-caused, according to the ODF.
National Guard helicopters and troops are being used in the firefighting effort.
Lightning rolled into the Sweet Home Unit with the rain Wednesday night and early Thursday morning north of Green Peter and south of Snow Peak, with about 15 to 20 strikes recorded, said Pettinger. As of Friday, forestry personnel were still out in the area looking for smoke, but they hadn’t found anything. The moisture cell dropped about .02 inches at the Sweet Home Unit office, located at 47th and Main.
It may have been there were no true “downstrikes,” Pettinger said. The lightning is detected using radar, and that can show cloud-to-cloud lightning.
The North Cascades district, north of Linn County, recorded four or five strikes, he said, and the East Lane Unit had none.
“The main brunt of the lightning was over the crest and east,” Pettinger said, while Sweet Home experienced a rogue cell.
Wildland firefighters were chasing individual strikes throughout the week on the east side, Pettinger said.
The lightning storm passed over the southern and central portions of the Willamette National Forest, igniting numerous small fires. One blaze in the headwaters of the Middle Fork Willamette River near Timpanogas Lake quickly grew to 15 acres. Crews responded immediately to that incident and a helicopter dropped water until evening fell.
Fifteen smoke reports were called into the Eugene Interagency Dispatch office that night, the majority of which were located in the Three Sisters Wilderness. Eight smokejumpers were working on a fire near Sims Butte, and early reports suggested they may be able to contain that fire. Smokejumpers were used to extinguish other fires in that area.
Sweet Home personnel are responding almost daily to debris fires and warming fires, neither of which are permitted in the lands outside of the city limits, Pettinger said. “So far none have gotten out of control.”
Thus far, wildland firefighters have been able to take care of everything on initial attack, Pettinger said.
Sweet Home Fire and Ambulance District has been responding one or two times a day to illegal burns or unattended campfires along Foster Lake, said Sweet Home Fire Chief Mike Beaver.
No open fires are allowed anywhere in the Linn Forest Protective Association lands, which surrounds Sweet Home.
Fire is only allowed in designated areas, typically in campgrounds. In the Quartzville Corridor, it’s allowed in established fire rings on the reservoir side of the road.
“In Sweet Home, there’s absolutely no debris or burning allowed,” Beaver said. Recreational fires, basically small campfires, are allowed for now. They must be 25 feet from combustible material, and a water hose must be available.
Despite below-normal temperatures over the weekend and the rain, the fire season is still running about two weeks ahead, Pettinger said. As it warms up again this week, lightning is also possible, he said.
Meanwhile, Sweet Home firefighters are staying busy.
“We’ve had multiple folks all over helping out,” Pettinger said.
Five from the Sweet Home Unit are working on the Douglas Complex, and Sweet Home Fire and Ambulance District has two working in Douglas County.
“We’ve had a lot of requests for more, but we’ve got responsibilities here,” Pettinger said.
Alaska’s fire season is winding down, Pettinger said, and he expects Oregon to receive reinforcements from Alaska at some point.
So far, the Sweet Home area has avoided a large fire, but the crews are out almost daily on calls getting practice and experience.
“I’m fine with it,” Pettinger said. “If we could escape the year without an extended attack, I’m happy.”
The largest fire so far this year in the Sweet Home Unit was actually just outside the border between Crawfordsville and Brownsville.
A fire burned 2.1 acres of a wheat field on July 30. A couple of weeks previous to that, a .7-acre fire burned along Cascadia Drive.
“Just because we haven’t had a big brush, grass, forest fire real close to here doesn’t mean we don’t have the potential around here,” Beaver said. A fire on Marks Ridge’s south slope on the north side of the South Santiam could be a big problem for SHFAD and ODF.
“People need to be extra careful,” he said. “Resources are stretched as thin as they can go here in Oregon.”