By Matthew Preusch
The Oregonian (Portland, Oregon)
Copyright 2006 The Oregonian
All Rights Reserved
SISTERS, Ore. — Cooler weather and calmer winds, combined with constant work on the ground and in the air, slowed the spread Sunday of Central Oregon’s Black Crater fire, the country’s top-priority wildfire.
Fire managers used the favorable conditions to build on progress made Saturday night, when crews lit back burns along eight miles of the fire’s northern and eastern edges, creating 500- to 1,000-foot breaks intended to rob the advancing fire of fuel.
“It was a good day today,” incident commander Carl West told fire managers during an afternoon briefing. “One of the reasons it was a good day is because of what you and a bunch of other people did last night.”
Though the weekend’s gains forestalled any imminent evacuation of Sisters, the threat to the community remains.
The fire is estimated at 9,000 acres of Deschutes National Forest and private land, roughly the same as it was Sunday morning, and is 20 percent contained.
The fire, sparked by lightning in the Three Sisters Wilderness southwest of Sisters on July 23, has led to the evacuation of three rural neighborhoods west of Sisters and threatens the town.
No homes in the Crossroads, Edgington or Tollgate subdivisions, home to 1,500 people, have been threatened, and 60 fire engines are scattered through the areas. They were mostly quiet Sunday except for the white “EVACUATED” tape fluttering in front of driveways and along fences.
The question for many residents is when they will get to return home to the three subdivisions.
Sunday night, Taylor Robertson, chief of the Sisters-Camp Sherman Rural Fire Protection District said much was still uncertain. But “if luck is with us, and if we keep up our good work and the wind stays down, I’d say in a few days everyone could be back,” he said.
Sisters’ 1,700 residents have been told to prepare to abandon the town in the event the fire overtakes the defenses built by firefighters as fire engines, tanker trucks, hand crews and air resources have poured in from across the country.
“The number one priority is to keep the fire from spreading to the east near Sisters,” said Ron Barber, deputy incident commander.
On the lines, fire engines and hand crews doused and stamped out smoldering spot fires, while overhead a steady succession of air tankers painted nearby pines red with drops of chemical retardant and helicopters dropped 1,000 gallon buckets of water, “trying to cool down the perimeter of the burnout,” Barber said.
Fire managers expect little growth for now on the eastern two-thirds of the fire but more robust spreading in parts of the Three Sisters Wilderness. The true test of the progress made will come later this week, when temperatures are forecast to rise and humidity to drop.
“The fire is looking good, but being around as many years as I’ve had, I’m not very comfortable with this thing at all,” said West, the incident commander.
Thus far, the fire has burned in a mosaic pattern, scorching some areas and leaving others untouched, he said.
“You’re getting a lot of under-burned areas where it’s not getting up into the crown,” West said, in contrast to a high-intensity blaze such as the B&B fire that burned about 90,000 acres west of Sisters in 2003.
Deschutes National Forest officials have treated between 4,000 and 5,000 acres a year during the past decade around Sisters, said Bill Anthony, Sisters district ranger. Fire officials hope that thinning, mowing and prescribed burns might help slow the fire if it gets close to town.
This morning, a Type I team, the highest level of fire management teams, will take over command of the fire from the Type II team that has worked it so far.
At a public meeting Sunday evening at Sisters High School, the outgoing management team received a standing ovation from hundreds of residents.
“I want a real nice goodbye for these folks, and hopefully we’ll never see them again,” Mayor David Elliott said to laughs.