Fire crews on southern Oregon’s Upper Applegate Fire have made excellent progress, holding the fire at an estimated 500 acres since it started on June 20 south of Ruch in the Applegate Valley. Burning on private, BLM, and USFS land on the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest, the fire’s been 15 percent lined directly and about 70 percent with direct line — the Northwest Coordination Center reports the human-caused fire still holding at about 40 percent containment. The unlined eastern edge of the fire is steep and rocky and has presented a challenge since the fire was engaged.
Despite hot and windy conditions, three federal large airtankers and one very large airtanker were flying out of Medford to keep the fire within its footprint. T-01 dropped on the Upper Applegate on Thursday, and both T-131 and 132 flew the fire on Friday. From McClellan on Friday, both T-103 and T-910 dropped on the fire.
KDRV-TV reported that an illegal drone was seen flying over the Upper Applegate Fire on Friday night, and ODF had to shut down aircraft for the last hour of the day. Drones can cause fatal accidents, and flying one in restricted airspace over or near a fire will ground planes and helicopters on the fire. The Jackson County Sheriff’s Office searched late into the evening for the drone and its pilot but were unable to locate them. If you have information, please call the JCSO Tip Line at (541)774-8333.
More than 200 personnel are now assigned to the fire, according to the Oregon Department of Forestry (ODF), including 27 overhead, seven 20-person crews, three engines, two watertenders, three bulldozers, six tree fallers, and a Rapid Extraction Mobile Support Team (REMS). The terrain on this fire has posed numerous safety issues, from the steep slope to hazard trees and rolling rocks.
Crews managed firing operations on the southern portion of the fire, which is near to houses across the road, connecting up firefighters’ line with a bulldozer line that was already in place.
Fire managers expect temperatures in the high 80s to low 90s with a slight wind in the afternoon. A Type 1 helicopter, along with a Type 3 and two Type 2 helicopters, are assigned exclusively to this incident, and airtankers will be ordered as needed. Portions of the fire area are affected by conifer mortality with large patches of dead Douglas-fir trees. Fallers have been working to remove these trees, allowing firefighters in closer to the fire’s edge.
@ Rich, that’s the norm these days. After several gigantic lawsuits the energy companies are preemptively cutting power so they don’t get sued for starts originating from their equipment. It’s going to result in homeowners stepping up their prep game for fire season.
Preemptively — or when told to by fire managers. Several of those multi-million-dollar lawsuits followed enormous fires that burned after fire managers asked PacifiCorp to power down and the company refused.
The company estimates that its utilities face at least $8 billion in claims from all the wildfire lawsuits already filed, but damages could be doubled or even tripled in some of those cases. At the top of this page is a search box. Type Pacificorp into the box and you’ll find a few stories about this. Congress is not going to pass a law that mandates leaving powerlines energized ahead of wildfires.
Unfortunately Pacific Power de-energized, cutting power to all of us in the neighborhood of this fire. We had no data on the fire, no way to tell relatives our status and for many, no way to wet down fuels. Now we must go out and buy generators or just take our chances with the next fire. We need legislation to deal with utilities that abandon the public in times of emergency.
Clear defensible space around your place, buy a generator, have extra fuel, watch your local weather service office for the latest fire weather forecast, be ready! If you live in WUI expect WUI things. It’s no different than living in hurricane or tornado country, plan for the worst, be ready, and have a plan.