Oregon Wildfire Is at ‘Turning Point,’ but Residents Still Wary

Hotshot crews shored up the last five miles of containment lines keeping the Biscuit fire out of the whitewater rafting section of the Rogue River on Monday, marking a turning point on the biggest blaze in the state’s history.

However, after three weeks of fire in their backyard, residents of the Rogue River hamlet of Agness were not ready to celebrate yet, and they were still thinning trees and cutting weeds and brush around their homes.

“Summer is lost to us all. There is no fun, no relaxing, and it’s probably not going to change,” until the fall rains come, said Deborah Crouse, librarian in this community of about 150 people that caters to whitewater rafters and fishermen on the Rogue River.

“We definitely have the celebration beer ready. But what we all know is what the fire is capable of. Those huge wind-generated firewalls could probably zip right through the fire line they just made. But every day, [firefighters] are able to do more. Every day, we feel safer and better.”

Helicopters dropped flammable pingpong balls on scattered unburned islands in the 50,000-acre burnout area on the northeastern flank of the fire, but the bulk of the burnout that had created ominous columns of smoke since Friday was done, said Rochelle Desser, a fire spokeswoman.

“I would say we are at a turning point,” she said. “We have completed the initial mission in Zone 1. Now, it’s just a matter of reinforcing it, testing it, and finally saying it is fully contained on this side.”

Ignited July 13 by lightning, the Biscuit fire has grown to 448,857 acres--two-thirds the size of Rhode Island. Overall, it is 40% contained, with 92 miles of fire line left to complete.

The fire in the Siskiyou National Forest in southwestern Oregon and Northern California is so big that it is being fought in four zones, each with its own management team. The cost has risen to $80 million, with 6,075 people, 92 bulldozers, 250 fire engines and 42 helicopters involved.

Zone 1 covers the eastern two-thirds of the fire, from the California line, through the Illinois Valley--where an evacuation alert for 17,000 people was lifted Friday--and up to Bear Camp Road, the primary shuttle route between Galice and Agness for rafters on the wilderness section of the Rogue.

“We would not want to characterize things as all buttoned up yet, but things are looking very good,” Desser said. Firefighters will soon be shifting from the eastern side of the fire to the western side, but smoke will continue coming off the fire until it rains.

On the western side, evacuation alerts remained in effect for Agness, nearby Oak Flat, the upper Pistol River drainage, and the Wilderness Retreat subdivision on the Chetco River.

However, the danger to those settlements diminished as containment lines grew and burnout operations continued, said fire spokesman Wayne Johnson.

“The line is not secure, but we’ve got it completed and are in mop-up,” Johnson said. “Weather forecasters have given us some favorable weather--higher humidities with a west-northwest wind--favorable for burnout.”

Meanwhile, the U.S. Forest Service battled a second fire that blew up to 6,000 acres over the weekend in the Umpqua National Forest east of Roseburg, forcing highway and campground closures along the popular fly-fishing section of the North Umpqua River.

The Apple fire, about 21 miles east of Glide, was expected to continue growing to the east and eventually merge with the Tiller Complex, which was 45% contained after burning 56,900 acres. Fire managers closed three campgrounds, the Umpqua Trail and parts of the North Umpqua River. Oregon Highway 138 was closed from Steamboat to Dry Creek. The cause was under investigation.