November 21, 2009
- Eugene, Oregon
Forest fire jumps road; residents face possible evacuation
By Dan Bain
ROSEBURG, Ore. -- The largest fire in Douglas County this year doubled in size over the weekend, and several home owners are without power and on evacuation alert.
 Fire officials on the Rattle Fire, about 60 miles east of Roseburg, say winds and warm temperatures combined to cause the fire to take off. It jumped from about 900 acres to nearly 1,800 acres from Saturday to Sunday.Officials from the fire management team say it jumped across Highway 138 and is in some extremely rugged terrain, and that has caused the closure of the highway. "It's dangerous to fight because the initial attack in this steep terrain is not a safe thing to do. It requires a lot of air support, which we have had the benefit of the last two days," said Tim Johnson, a public information officer for the ORCA Incident Management Team Some homes are threatened in the Dry Creek area, but so far they have not had to evacuate anyone, Johnson said Sunday afternoon, "At the present time no structures have been lost. There are a number of structures which are under a Category-2 Evacuation, which is a warning to be ready to evacuate. It's not an imminent evacuation order," Johnson said. The residents in the Dry Creek area have been without electrical service for a couple of days after Pacific Power had to cut off the power in some sections of their power lines to allow the firefighters to work in the area. A Hot Shot crew from the Wolf Creek Job Corp is trailing the fire on the south side of the highway. The fire camp has been relocated from Glide to the Toketee Airstrip, with just under 200 people now working on the fire. Most of it still located in the Boulder Creek Wilderness Area. |
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