After lightning sparked a fire in the Woods Creek Road area late Tuesday night, firefighters worked throughout the night to establish a line around the blaze and hold it to 1.6 acres, Philomath Fire and Rescue reported.
The local fire department was dispatched at 10:45 p.m. July 16 to the area of Woods Creek Road and Highway 20 with the fire seen from a residence on Lone Star Road. Rich Saalsaa, Philomath’s deputy fire chief and public information officer, said crews were out on other fire calls when the alert came in.
“Crews were attempting to locate another lightning-caused fire in the area of Evergreen Road and Greasy Creek Road at the time of this incident,” Saalsaa said just hours after returning from an assignment at the Larch Creek Fire in Wasco County. “The area was in red flag conditions so a dispatch request was made of all county fire agencies.”
The Wood Creek-area fire, which was labeled as the East Tower Fire, was located just west of Timber Supply Co. property.
“The area is in steep terrain and has seen recent timber harvesting,” Saalsaa said.
The Oregon Department of Forestry and units from Adair, Alsea, Hoskins-Kings Valley, Monroe and Blodgett-Summit all responded.
“ODF has overall jurisdiction of the fire but worked in joint command with Philomath Fire during the active phase of the incident,” Saalsaa said.”
No evacuations were ordered with the fire contained quickly.
Philomath Fire and Rescue’s response from its Main Street station included a brush truck with four personnel and a water tender with one firefighter along with Fire Chief Chancy Ferguson as incident commander. A brush truck with two personnel responded from Fire and Rescue’s Inavale station.
Other county fire agencies provided four brush trucks and a water tender and ODF supplied three brush trucks and a supervisor. Thompson Timber assisted with a water tender and is involved with ongoing mop-up operations with ODF.
“ODF currently has a 20-person hand crew on scene to mop-up any hot spots and further strengthen containment lines,” Saalsaa said.
As for the fire that firefighters were seeking late Tuesday in the Evergreen-Greasy Creek area, Saalsaa said none was found. Located on Thompson Timber property, that company’s personnel did locate a small burn in the vicinity that appeared to have been contained by rain. Thompson Timber is handling its own mop-up at the scene.
Wildfire preparedness event
As reported earlier this week, Philomath Fire and Rescue will host a wildfire preparedness community event at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Philomath City Park’s Randy Kugler Community Hall. The event has been organized in partnership with ODF and Benton County Emergency Management.
The event will include information on fire preparedness, including what to do during an evacuation, as well as what the community can expect in an escalating incident. Saalsaa said the meeting will cover the subject of evacuation level and how messages are delivered to impacted areas should there be a larger incident.
Fighting fire around the state
Earlier this week, Philomath Fire and Rescue’s Layne Converse, Zander Bradford and Lindsay Taylor, along with a heavy brush truck, were redeployed as part of the Benton County Task Force from the Larch Creek Fire to the Lone Rock Fire in north-central Oregon.
In addition, Capt. Andy Louden is his capacity as deputy incident commander for the state fire marshal was sent to the Falls Fire in Harney County.
“PFR is committed to preservation of life and property within our community and we will not hesitate to call on other resources as needed to expand our capacity to mitigate these incidents, as we provide assistance to other communities faced with the same issues,” Saalsaa said.
As of Wednesday morning, there were 11 large wildfires being fought across Oregon.
