By Mark Larabee
The Oregonian (Portland, Oregon)
Copyright 2006 The Oregonian
All Rights Reserved
Rapid-fire lightning strikes touched off more than 250 wildfires in Oregon, including several in the wilderness surrounding Mount Hood, forcing the evacuation of two campgrounds and the closure of Oregon 35.
Firefighters attacked the Mount Hood fires from the ground and air Tuesday as a team of expert wildfire managers geared up in the late afternoon to oversee the effort and evaluate the danger.
By early evening, the fires on the mountain’s northeast flank had burned an estimated 400 acres and were nowhere near contained.
“The activity of the fire has increased, especially as the day has gotten warmer and things have heated up,” said Paul Norman, spokesman for the Mount Hood National Forest.
Thick smoke from the fires forced the Oregon Department of Transportation to close 11 miles of Oregon 35 between the White River snow park and Cooper Spur Road. Motorists may use Interstate 84, U.S. 26 or U.S. 197 as alternate routes, transportation officials said. They had no idea when the highway would reopen.
The fires also forced the evacuation and closure of two U.S. Forest Service campgrounds Tuesday morning: the Nottingham and Sherwood campgrounds off Oregon 35 in the Hood River Ranger District.
The fires on Mount Hood were in two groups. The Bluegrass fire near Cold Springs in the Mount Hood Wilderness was burning on the hillside west of Oregon 35. It had burned about 200 acres and was spreading. A 20-person hot shot crew was sent in on foot, but was pulled back after fire officials determined the terrain was too dangerous, Norman said.
The crew was redirected to another group of nearby fires in the Badger Creek Wilderness, about 1.5 miles east of Oregon 35 near Gumjuwac Saddle. Norman said three 20-acre fires were burning in that area in addition to “seven to 11 spot-size” fires. The locations in steep terrain with stands of dead timber have the potential of flaring up, and fire managers were still assessing whether it will be safe for smoke jumpers to parachute in, he said.
A U.S Forest Service helicopter capable of carrying 2,400 gallons of water or fire retardant was knocking down hot spots and attempting to keep the fires from spreading. Fire officials had moved the La Grande-based helicopter to the Troutdale Airport on Monday in anticipation of the lightning storm.
Lightning strikes continued throughout Tuesday in Central Oregon, north and east of Bend, and fire managers expected the pattern to continue until this morning. Strikes were noted as far east as John Day, and more than 70 fires were burning on Oregon Department of Forestry and National Forest lands in the Malheur Forest, said John Townsley, a spokesman for the Northwest Interagency Coordination Center in Portland.
“We’re running out of crews to staff all the starts,” Townsley said.
More than 80 fires have been reported in Central Oregon since Monday. Most were along the Cascade Range on the Deschutes National Forest and on the northern portion of the Ochoco National Forest, said Roland Giller, a spokesman for the Deschutes National Forest.
Firefighters have successfully kept most of the recent fires from growing more than a tenth of an acre through early detection and rapid response. Rain also accompanied much of the lightning, so many fires grew slowly, Giller said.