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Eastern Oregon fire burns to 73,000 acres

Kelly AnderssonJuly 12, 2024July 12, 2024WildfireBLM, Brogan, Oregon, ValeLeave a comment

A new wildfire near the small Malheur County town of Brogan grew quickly to over 20,000 acres by Thursday evening, prompting closure of a 23-mile stretch of U.S. Highway 26 in eastern Oregon and evacuation alerts, along with call-up of two state structural-protection task forces, authorities said.

It’s burning on private and public lands 9 miles east of Ironside, and by this afternoon it was pushing 75,000 acres.

Cow Valley Fire, grew to about 20,000 acres Thursday, burning on both sides of U.S. Highway 26 — The Cow Valley Fire burned to about 20,000 acres Thursday, on both sides of U.S. Highway 26

KTVB-TV reported that crews are battling two fires near U.S. Highway 26 in eastern Oregon. The Cow Valley Fire and the Bonita Road Fire both started early Thursday morning.

Others include the nearly 14,000-acre Larch Creek Fire south of The Dalles in Wasco County, which is still without any containment, and the nearly 4,000-acre Salt Creek Fire in Jackson County, about 16 percent contained.

The Larch Creek Fire grew from just 100 acres Tuesday afternoon, overnight and the next day, and by Wednesday night it was pushing 11,000 acres, according to the Oregon Department of Forestry. Zach Urness with the Statesman-Journal reported that the fire was at 13,816 acres Friday morning after more than 3,000 acres of growth overnight. The fire remains at zero percent containment, and Highway 216 east remains closed between milepost 1 and 4.

Thursday afternoon brought windy conditions to the area but fire behavior moderated overnight with lower temperatures and winds. Overnight crews worked closer to the active areas, building line and securing perimeters around Shadybrook Road and Highway 216.

“Today, air and ground crews will be active on all sides of the fire, building fire line, reinforcing existing line, and monitoring for hot spots. Structure protection will be focused on the community of Tygh Valley, Pine Hollow and Shadybrook subdivisions, and along Highway 216,

The Wasco County Sheriff’s Office has issued a Level 3 “Go Now!” evacuation order from Friend Road, East to Elliott Road and Highway 197, South to Badger Creek Road, West to McCorkle Grade Road.

Residents of at least 41 homes were advised to evacuate. Several other areas are under Level 2 and Level 1 evacuation orders.

Check the latest evacuation maps from the Wasco County Sheriff’s Office

The area was under a Red Flag Warning for critical fire weather on Tuesday afternoon.

There are 22 large fires burning Oregon totaling over 145,277 acres, according to the Northwest Interagency Coordination Center.

Early afternoon Friday Vale District BLM said the Cow Valley Fire had burned over 73,720 acres. ODOT shared photos on TripCheck of the Cow Valley Fire yesterday.

KTVB in Boise reported 30-50 homes in Brogan are threatened, and power was shut down for customers at risk from powerlines close to the fire.

It was one of three large new area fires, along with the 4,500-acre Huntington Mutual Aid Fire in Baker County, which forced evacuations and alerts in the Huntington area and Farewell Bend State Park, and the 1,867-acre Bonita Road Fire, also in Malheur County, reported early Thursday morning.

The fire is moving toward Malheur Reservoir and is threatening 30 to 50 homes in the Brogan community. Malheur County Sheriff’s Office is advising residents to prepare for evacuation orders. At one point, 16 aircraft were assigned to the fire, dropping water and retardant, along with seven engines and four dozers plus crews from Vale and Burnt River RFPAs and Sand Hollow Fire District.

Upper Applegate Fire holding at 500 acres, drone grounded aircraft

Kelly AnderssonJune 22, 2024June 24, 2024Wildfireapplegate, medford, Oregon4 Comments

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.

Early morning 06/21 Upper Applegate Fire, ODF photo

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.

Resources from across Oregon have been dispatched to this fire, including ODF’s Incident Management Team 2. KEZI-TV reported that crews with McKenzie Fire and Rescue, Junction City Fire District, Coburg Fire District, South Lane County Fire and Rescue, Lane Fire Authority, Pleasant Hill Goshen Fire and Rescue, and Mohawk Valley Fire District are on the fire, and a task force was mobilized out of Polk County. The Oregon State Fire Marshal deployed two strike teams, along with resources from the BLM, USFS, and Applegate Valley Fire District.

Missing Miles photos of the Upper Applegate Fire.

More photos and video [HERE] by The Missing Miles.

Burn boss trial moving from Grant County, Oregon to federal court

Kelly AnderssonApril 1, 2024April 9, 2024Prescribed Fireburn boss, Grant County, Oregon, Ricky Snodgrass22 Comments

Lawyers representing Ricky Snodgrass, the burn boss who was arrested by the sheriff in Grant County, Oregon, are working to move the arresting-a-federal-employee case to U.S. District Court in Pendleton.

Snodgrass had a scheduled appearance on the first of April on the reckless burning charge that followed the local district attorney’s indictment of the burn boss during a prescribed fire on the Malheur National Forest in the fall of 2022.

The D.A. was served with a notice about moving the case to federal court, where charges will likely be immediately dropped.

Kirk Siegler, in his Morning Edition report on NPR, explained that Snodgrass’s arrest and the (much) later indictment were based on a “reckless” burning charge when a spot fire somehow ignited in dry grass across the road from a planned and approved and publicized prescribed fire — grass on the property of the Holliday Ranch, an adjacent landowner. Some of the landowner’s family members and/or friends had been driving up and down the road between the ranch and USFS property, harassing the firefighters, before Snodgrass finally called police to report the problems.

[note: Though Siegler calls this a “reckless burn” charge, Ricky Snodgrass was charged with “reckless burning” by the sheriff.]

After Snodgrass phoned in the harassment and reckless driving by locals, the sheriff in John Day responded to the incident, found Snodgrass supervising the burn under way by federal and state and contract crews, and instead of citing the locals, arrested the burn boss.

Sheriff McKinley handcuffed him, arrested him for “reckless burning,” and drove him into town to the jail in John Day — where he was quickly released.

The burn boss arrest very quickly hit the news and ignited controversy — far beyond Oregon and the wildland fire community. The story was picked up by news organizations including the Washington Post, The Guardian, NBC News, ABC News, Reuters, and others. Forest Service Chief Randy Moore quickly vowed he and the agency would “not stand idly by” after this first-ever arrest, and that he and others would defend USFS employees.

Grant County District Attorney Jim Carpenter

The county D.A. Jim Carpenter in October of 2022 indicted the burn boss on a charge of so-called reckless burning.

Sheriff McKinley eventually completed his investigation and presented the case to Carpenter for review, and on February 2, 2024, the case was finally presented to a grand jury, which returned an indictment against Ricky Snodgrass for Reckless Burning, ORS 164.335, a Class A misdemeanor that carries a penalty of up to a year in jail and a $6,250 fine.

In the State of Oregon, a person commits the crime of reckless burning if the person recklessly damages property of another by fire or explosion. Not long after Snodgrass’ arrest, Carpenter laid out what he said was the legal standard for determining whether a burn is reckless. “The risk must be of such nature and degree that disregard thereof constitutes a gross deviation from the standard of care that a reasonable person would observe in the situation,” he said.

The head of the NFFE union said the sheriff had interfered with a federal employee in the course of his duties, and one or more of the firefighters under direction of the burn boss pointed this out to Sheriff McKinley on that day. Snodgrass was directing a federal project and supervising crews — not just USFS but also ODF and contract fire crews — on a large prescribed burn, one of a series of planned and approved and publicized burns on the Malheur National Forest.

To no one’s surprise, Sheriff Todd McKinley has declined interview requests.

Grant County officials told NPR the arrest is being overblown. “One man doing his job kind of caused the other one to have to do his,” said Scott Myers, the judge and CEO for Grant County in John Day. He claims the weather conditions that day probably weren’t favorable for a burn — despite the alignment with the specs in the burn plan — and he says the fire somehow “damaged” private property — though neigher Myers nor anyone else has actually claimed this publicly or explained what they’re talking about.

Despite the adjacent landowners’ talk, the slopover across the road blackened not quite 20 acres and was contained inside of an hour — even though the project supervisor had been removed — not by the ranchers but by the federal and/or state and/or contract crews assigned by the USFS to the RxFire.

The eastern Oregon region has a long history of mistrust of and antagonism toward the federal government. Local residents for years before that ranted about how the UN and NATO had a plot under way to take over all federal lands in eastern Oregon — somehow in cahoots, they said, with the Chinese Communist Party.

Trump won the county’s 2020 election with 76 percent of the vote. It’s a sparsely populated place, with just over 7000 people scattered over about 4500 square miles — averaging fewer than two people per square mile.

Grant County has a long history of tension with federal agencies and employees, despite the large number of locals employed by federal agencies in and around John Day. It’s the same kind of tension that stormed the National Capitol on January 06, 2021 — and back in 2016 took over and occupied the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge about 100 miles south in neighboring Harney County.

Not quite 30 years ago, county voters approved a symbolic measure “prohibiting the federal Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service from owning and managing federal lands within Grant County.”

Grant County later asked Congress to grant the county title to all federal lands — about 60 percent of the acreage in the county.

During the 41-day armed occupation in 2016 of the Malheur NWR, several militia members led by Ammon Bundy (who has since disappeared after being successfully sued for defamation by a hospital in Boise) were driving to John Day to meet with supporters. They ran into a police roadblock, and LaVoy Finicum was fatally shot by law enforcement.

Scott Myers, CEO -- Grant County Oregon — Scott Myers, CEO and Judge, Grant County

Grant County chief executive Scott Myers claims that relations between the county and federal employees have since improved.

“We get labeled a lot to be a whole bunch of gun-totin’ pickup-drivin’ crazy maniacs out here, and I don’t really think we are,” he told NPR.

Trump "cartoon" in the Blue Mountain Eagle, John Day, Oregon — Trump “cartoon” in the Blue Mountain Eagle. Definitely NOT gun-totin’pickup-drivin’ crazy maniacs., nope.

Thanks and a tip of the hardhat to CARL for this story, but don’t bother looking for news updates from the paper in John Day, because their editor’s now “monetizing their content” behind a paywall.

their

7 years ago today

Kelly AnderssonMarch 10, 2024WildfireHembre Lookout, Lookout, Oregon, Tillamook Burn2 Comments

Burn boss indicted by grand jury

Kelly AnderssonFebruary 6, 2024February 6, 2024Prescribed Fireburn boss, John Day, Oregon, Ricky Snodgrass71 Comments

The Blue Mountain Eagle in John Day, Oregon reports that Grant County Sheriff Todd McKinley, arrested Ricky Snodgrass, a USFS employee and prescribed fire burn boss, on October 19, 2022, for reckless burning — while the fire he was supervising was still burning. It is the first time a Forest Service firefighter was arrested in the course of doing his job.

On the day of the burn, weather recorded at the EW3547 Seneca weather station at 2 p.m. was 73°F with 16 percent RH and mostly calm winds that occasionally gusted to 3 mph.

The planned burn, conducted by crews with the USFS and ODF and contract crews, escaped the prescription area, spotting across a road onto private property. Several acres on the adjacent ranch burned before the spot was contained. A conflict erupted with neighbors and Snodgrass called 9-1-1 to report aggressive behavior toward his crews. The sheriff arrived, met with Snodgrass, and then arrested him and drove him to the jail in handcuffs.

Firefighters who remained on the job brought the private land slopover under control in about an hour; they also maintained control of the prescribed burn on national forest land.

Snodgrass was driven to the county jail, where he was officially booked and then quickly released.

The Starr 6 Burn very quickly hit the news and ignited controversy — far beyond Oregon and the wildland fire community.

The story was picked up by news organizations including the Washington Post, The Guardian, NBC News, ABC News, Reuters, and others. Forest Service Chief Randy Moore quickly vowed he would “not stand idly by” after this first-ever arrest, and that he and others would defend USFS employees. The head of the NFFE union said the sheriff interfered with a federal employee in the course of his duties.

Sheriff McKinley eventually completed his investigation and presented the case to the office of Grant County D.A. Jim Carpenter for review, and on February 2, 2024, the case was finally presented to a grand jury, which returned an indictment against Ricky Snodgrass for Reckless Burning, ORS 164.335, a class A misdemeanor that carries a penalty of up to a year in jail and a $6,250 fine.

Arraignment is scheduled for March 4, 2024 at 1:00 p.m.

“It is anticipated that this case will proceed through the court system like any other class A misdemeanor,” said Carpenter. “While this case remains pending, the State will have no other comment on the matter.”

For more information you can email the District Attorney’s Office in John Day at gcdastaff@grantcounty-or.gov or call (541)575-0146. Carpenter’s press release and the Ricky Snodgrass indictment are both posted on our DOCUMENTS page.

~ Thanks and a tip of the hardhat to Geoff.

Tony Chiotti, ace reporter with the Blue Mountain Eagle in
John Day, Oregon, wrote an in-depth report after the Snodgrass
arrest, re-published on 10/26/22 by WildfireToday.

Oregon IMTs and firefighters out for ice storm recovery

Kelly AnderssonJanuary 27, 2024January 28, 2024Uncategorizedhiring, ice storm, Oregon1 Comment

Western Oregon’s recent ice storm cleanup, after one of the worst winter storms in history, is now in the mop-up stage, and firefighters with the Oregon Department of Forestry have teamed up with the City of Springfield to help. For most of a week now, they’ve worked in the Thurston area of Springfield east of Eugene, clearing downed trees and sidewalks. A team of 14 started by clearing students’ paths to area schools.

“We noticed that right after the ice storm, they were using the streets to walk because they weren’t able to access the sidewalk,” ODF forester Kolten Vickers told Albert James with KEZI News in Eugene . “So we started around schools, and now we’re branching off into other parts of neighborhoods.”

Vickers has been with ODF for five years, but this is his first time cleaning up after a winter storm. “Primarily I assist with fires during the summers,” he said. “But with ODF having incident management teams — it’s all incidents. So storm recovery falls under that response.”

Local resident Patty Gori regularly walks the neighborhood with her dogs and was grateful to see the clearing work. “It was a mess,” she said. “But now, it’s amazing. They got so much cleaned up in the last couple of days, I just can’t even believe it.”

Who ya gonna call? Firefighters. Besides clearing streets and chainsaw duty, ODF sent an IMT to coordinate a unified response to the storm.

“You don’t see what’s going on behind the scenes,” said Joe Hessel, from a longtime firefighting family in eastern Oregon. “You see firefighters digging a fireline or public works crews working on city streets. At some point, somebody’s trying to organize that chaotic potential into something that makes sense. That’s what we’re here helping the city do.” Hessel serves as a deputy incident commander for this post-storm incident, but he’s usually an incident commander with a state team. He said the storm response effort was started and led by Lane County and the City of Springfield, but on January 25 they transferred command over to the city, with the IMT from ODF still assisting.

“In large part, the city staff and departments are doing the work, just like when we were with Lane County,” Hessel said. “We’re helping at the highest level to coordinate and put a plan together to ensure that the right work is getting done at the right place at the right time.”

“We do train for incidents outside of wildfire,” he explained. “The ICS system we use on wildfires carries right across to pretty much any other incident. We’ve been to Florida and helped the State of Florida in hurricane response. We’re prepared in the event that there’s an earthquake or a tsunami here. Last year one of our teams, a short team like we have here, went to a county and helped out with a cyber attack and planning for how to manage and deal with that.”

“ODF is great, they do this type of work for a living in fire management, so they have a lot of experience in incident management,” said Ben Gibson, operations maintenance manager with the City of Springfield. “They’ve been a great resource to our emergency operations center staff in helping us move forward smoothly.”

ODF truck — Oregon Department of Forestry logo on a truck door.

Hessel said both his team and the local crews have learned a lot from each other, and he hopes the information shared between the groups can go a long way in responding to future events. “That transference of skills and knowledge to each other will benefit pretty much either entity,” he said. “And then we’ll actually develop some products we’ll leave behind — some written documents, like a debris removal plan that could be used next time, or a contact list with names on it.”

Eugene and Springfield and the surrounding area endured a record-breaking winter storm with snow and ice and rain and high winds. The storm caused widespread power outages and severely damaged at least 60 percent of the trees at the Mt. Pisgah Arboretum. The storm took out powerlines at the arboretum and necessitated a safety closure, according the a report by Oregon Public Broadcasting. Brad Van Appel, longtime director at Mt. Pisgah, said there was about an inch of ice on the trees and it was more than most of them could take.

“We have 209 acres, much of it full of trees,” he said. “I think nearly every tree took some damage.” For those wanting to help, the arboretum and its sister organization Friends of Buford Park are looking for volunteers, and they can sign up online.

Also of note, ODF is looking for a Wildland Fire Supervisor to manage the fire program down in Klamath Falls. This is a permanent benefited position. $4,918 – $7,244 monthly depending on experience. Recruitment closes January 31.

Details: WILDLAND FIRE SUPERVISOR APPLICATION

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