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Counted fires

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webfoot

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 8, 2008
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2,086
City & State/Province
NE Oregon
An on line map shows the fires in eastern Oregon. I counted 51 different active fires. The biggest listed 220,000 acres. There is 2 that are over 100,000 acres. I tried to count the listed acres but there are just too many little flames on the map. There has to be over 800,000 acres on fire right now. The Fox fire was 200 acres. Our crew fought it Thursday night and Friday morning. They had it contained and controlled. They left BLM to mop up. It got away from BLM Friday afternoon. It is up to over 7,000 acres now. Back around 5:30 the smoke cleared enough that I could see the smoke coming up from the Fox fire. The way that smoke was billowing up you could tell that fire was on the run. 100 degrees, 11% humidity. and a 15-20 mph wind it has turned into an animal you don't want to be in front of.
 
The Fox ran along the river for a ways. That first hill going up from the river is mighty steep. Only way to fight it on that hill is from the air. I thought it was going to run up and meet the Powder River fire but it seemed to turn north.
 
Nicky said:
Fox fire is up to 21,000 acres this morning 😣 Mike talked to a neighbor last night who had been there trying to help a friend get his cows out. The wind was blowing like crazy and they had to get out without the cows.
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Now at 26,000+ acres. Fires don't burn everything clean. Hopefully this man's cows find one of those spots doesn't burn. I know in our big fire in 2024 neighbor CB was figuring he had lost all of his cows. He never lost a single one. They holed up in a spot which didn't burn. They came wandering out in small groups for a week or three after the fire. I left my gates open and ran Dave's cow collection service. Every few days I would make a few phone calls and we would gather out of my hay meadows and sort the ones that came down.
A thicket of old thick junipers work good for this. There is no grass under them so they don't burn except a few trees on the edge, Small junipers with grass and sage brush around them go up like roman candles.
 
webfoot said:
Now at 26,000+ acres. Fires don't burn everything clean. Hopefully this man's cows find one of those spots doesn't burn. I know in our big fire in 2024 neighbor CB was figuring he had lost all of his cows. He never lost a single one. They holed up in a spot which didn't burn. They came wandering out in small groups for a week or three after the fire. I left my gates open and ran Dave's cow collection service. Every few days I would make a few phone calls and we would gather out of my hay meadows and sort the ones that came down.
A thicket of old thick junipers work good for this. There is no grass under them so they don't burn except a few trees on the edge, Small junipers with grass and sage brush around them go up like roman candles.
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Leanin' H is fighting fires in Utah and he described a scene like this. Looking for cows in burned out areas and found them alive and okay where it didn't burn. Thank the good Lord!!
 
They put Huntington under level 3 Evacuation (go now). The north end of the fire show lots of small spot fires out in front of it.

Hwy 26 between Mitchel and Prineville is closed.

The Big Grass fire south of Jordan Valley has to be 300,000 acres now. It has pushed over into Idaho.
 
It has spread so fast, and it seems like such a small crew for that amount of acreage.



Screenshot (376) copy.webp
 
Well whoever thought it jumped the freeway was wrong. But it did burn right to the edge of the freeway in several spots between Lime and the Lookout Mt road. Look to the north in that stretch and all the hills for as far as you can see are black. I hope Levi got his cows out. A lot of that ground is his pasture, I saw a bunch of cows in the meadow at Linda Dahlman's place. But certainly not his whole herd.
 
I did see some spots where it was still burning. By Rye Valley but the crew was lined up nearly shoulder to shoulder so I am sure that didn't go anywhere. In a draw above Linda Dahlman's. But that was flame surrounded by lots of black. Up on top of a ridge west of Linda's. That would be the only worry some flames. They had the west bound freeway squeezed down to one lane (left) for probably 5 miles. Every exit off the freeway was closed.
 
The young captain of the rez fire dept stopped by yesterday with several stories.

They had all the rez fires mostly out so they responded to the desperate calls of the Washington fire dept that was fighting multiple fires near the state line where an Oregon fire that burned a school house and thousands of acres, had gotten out of control when it crossed into Washington.

They were a two man crew with a brush truck holding 400 gallons. They had to leave the big 3000 gallon engines at the rez for mop up and to be ready for areas where the grass is tall and dry.

They arrived at the scene and were sent to protect a ranch house, big barn, and a couple of smaller houses nearby. The fire was coming up the hill quickly. The Washington guys with their 3000 gallon trucks stayed observing and went around putting out spot fires that were far away from any structures.

The Rez two, battled the approaching fire starting at the barn and all of a sudden it erupted in flames. I guess the guy had about 10 years worth of firewood in it. They had to back out and get on the far side of the house and the two ranchers with their pickup with a 300 gallon tank, but low pressure pump and too large a hose, were put spraying water over the house roof to the far side and soaking it back and forth till they ran out of water.

The rez two went toward the fire line and started soaking down the ground between the barn and house. They got it out except for hot spots still burning in the heap that was once a barn.

Then the crew with the big rigs came down after getting out a few spots and standing around looking as if they were fire watch, not firefighters. They asked the rez captain to stay and mop up. He says no, we are out of water and my rookie is suffering heat exhaustion. Also that his crew are firefighters and don't stand around accessing damage, putting out spot fires while houses burn, and don't mop up others fires. He said his temp gauge showed they were in 130 and a bit over heat for about an hour when they tried to save the barn. He says the firewood made it impossible. He said the rancher told him he had a cord of kindling in there and that is what exploded.

About the time they were leaving, Mad Max showed up in his Vietnam era Huey with a big bucket of water and really soaked the area around all the remaining structures. Mad Max is in his 70s and has crashed three times fighting fires, but just gets another Huey and carries on. He says after his crash in the jungle of Vietnam, crashing in this area is nothing. He has no plans for retirement. He says the Good Lord will take care of his retirement in a final crash. He says if left up to FS and BLM, the whole dry west would burn. Too many Newscums in charge, he says.

Anyway the rookie was rushed to the hospital because his legs started cramping. They told him at the hospital that to drink an equal amount of Gatorade to water, when in such heat and sweating. Good advice to all, carry lots of Gatorade when out in the heat sweating, especially fighting fires where you can't go cool off in the shade.

Smoky here this morning, but light breeze is keeping AQI acceptable. Everyone stay safe!
 
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after kids fighting long draw fire from 2 in the morning Sunday till 4 that afternoon. that night there was a 2 hour straight lighting storm that night, they went back to long draw and got sent to a fire 4 miles down the road from us yesterday,there were 6 new fires on Oden hill , and a 2000 acre fire west of us in Campbell county.
 
Older Whiskey said:
The young captain of the rez fire dept stopped by yesterday with several stories.

They had all the rez fires mostly out so they responded to the desperate calls of the Washington fire dept that was fighting multiple fires near the state line where an Oregon fire that burned a school house and thousands of acres, had gotten out of control when it crossed into Washington.

They were a two man crew with a brush truck holding 400 gallons. They had to leave the big 3000 gallon engines at the rez for mop up and to be ready for areas where the grass is tall and dry.

They arrived at the scene and were sent to protect a ranch house, big barn, and a couple of smaller houses nearby. The fire was coming up the hill quickly. The Washington guys with their 3000 gallon trucks stayed observing and went around putting out spot fires that were far away from any structures.

The Rez two, battled the approaching fire starting at the barn and all of a sudden it erupted in flames. I guess the guy had about 10 years worth of firewood in it. They had to back out and get on the far side of the house and the two ranchers with their pickup with a 300 gallon tank, but low pressure pump and too large a hose, were put spraying water over the house roof to the far side and soaking it back and forth till they ran out of water.

The rez two went toward the fire line and started soaking down the ground between the barn and house. They got it out except for hot spots still burning in the heap that was once a barn.

Then the crew with the big rigs came down after getting out a few spots and standing around looking as if they were fire watch, not firefighters. They asked the rez captain to stay and mop up. He says no, we are out of water and my rookie is suffering heat exhaustion. Also that his crew are firefighters and don't stand around accessing damage, putting out spot fires while houses burn, and don't mop up others fires. He said his temp gauge showed they were in 130 and a bit over heat for about an hour when they tried to save the barn. He says the firewood made it impossible. He said the rancher told him he had a cord of kindling in there and that is what exploded.

About the time they were leaving, Mad Max showed up in his Vietnam era Huey with a big bucket of water and really soaked the area around all the remaining structures. Mad Max is in his 70s and has crashed three times fighting fires, but just gets another Huey and carries on. He says after his crash in the jungle of Vietnam, crashing in this area is nothing. He has no plans for retirement. He says the Good Lord will take care of his retirement in a final crash. He says if left up to FS and BLM, the whole dry west would burn. Too many Newscums in charge, he says.

Anyway the rookie was rushed to the hospital because his legs started cramping. They told him at the hospital that to drink an equal amount of Gatorade to water, when in such heat and sweating. Good advice to all, carry lots of Gatorade when out in the heat sweating, especially fighting fires where you can't go cool off in the shade.

Smoky here this morning, but light breeze is keeping AQI acceptable. Everyone stay safe!
Click to expand...
Thank you for sharing that.
Several of my relatives spent a good part of their lives involved with fighting fires.
It would have been really hard for them to stand by and see a structure burn that they could have saved. But some where along the line the agency that employed them decided they had not had training to address structure fires, and the agencies insurance would not cover them if they were injured while engaged in such an activity.

I think most of them would have ignored the new policy if faced with watching a home burn they knew they could save. And there is a huge difference between preventing a structure fire, and actively trying to put a fire out that is already in the structure.
 
Another interesting part of the story is the Washington fire captain wasn't happy that the Rez captain called air support. He said they called for it, so their dept can pay for it. The Rez Captain told him to take it up with his boss, saying he was a firefighter and not an administrator worried about a budget.

The ranchers were extremely grateful and said they learned something about protecting structures and would certainly get a higher pressure pump and better nozzle.
 

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