InciWeb - Incident Information System

Fuel models 2,8,10. Vegetation type is mixed conifer consisting of Grand Fir, Lodgepole Pine, Engelmann Spruce and Western Larch with Douglas Fir and Ponderosa Pine on drier sites.

Fire activity on the Black Canyon fire has been checked by crew suppression actions and moderating weather conditions. Over this past weekend lower humidity and higher temperatures allowed the fire to show potential threats, with an occasional single tree torching. Most smokes were in the interior. Sunday night, a cold front came through bringing cooler temperatures (60's) and higher relative humidity(28%)reducing fire activity. Monday, as the cold front lingers, there will be showers with a 10% probability of wetting rain. Fire behavior is confined to creeping and smoldering. The probability of ignition has significantly decreased as the cold front invades the fire area.

Crews have completed direct line construction and are continuing mop-up activities. Smoldering fuels within 100 feet of the fire perimeter were entinguished. The Whistler fire in the Mill Creek Wilderness is out.

Fire crews are engaged in actions to check and hold the fire within its current perimeter continuing the 100 ft. mop-up. In the Black Canyon Wilderness, crews have been using minimum impact techniques (MIST) to check and hold the spread of the fire. A fuel break was made by hand to clear away fuels rather than by digging a fire line, and water use has been from portable tanks instead of wilderness streams reducing noise from pumps. When dead trees were removed for firefighter safety, the cut faces on stumps were away from trails and roads and grooves were cut in stumps to accelerate their decay over time. The moderating temperatures,higher humidities and the excellent progress that crews have made over the weekend have essentially checked the fire.

Black Canyon fire growth potential is low. Fire behavior is characterized as smoldering and creeping with some isolated single tree torching. Note: On Sunday, August 17, the Black Canyon and Wolf Wildland Fire Use (WFU) fires merged and grew rapidly to a point making it difficult to achieve resource objectives. If the merged fire had gone unchecked, fire management specialists estimated there was an 80% chance the fire would burn past the management boundaries identified previously for the wildland fire use. Forest managers decided to check the fire along selected lines near its present location to reduce the risk of not meeting resource and fire management objectives. The need to also manage other wildfires in Central Oregon influenced that decision as fire fighting resources were stretched thin by high demand at that time.

Low to high. The Black Canyon Fire is located betwen 5000 to 6000 ft. The terrain varies from moist north-facing slopes to drier mixed conifer stands on south facing slopes. Crews are observing extra caution because of falling snags and fire weakened trees in the fire area. Attention is focused on the potential for additional falling snags and trees. Fallers are felling hazard trees alongside principal access routes and where they pose an immediate hazard to crews.

The Northwest Fire Use Team will turn over command of the Ochoco Wildland Fire Use Complex to a Type 3 Team at 0600 Tuesday, August 26, 2008. No further news releases or InciWeb updates are planned unless there is a significant change in fire activity. The email address (ochocowfu@gmail.com) and telephone number listed above for this incident will not be checked after 8 pm today. For further information after today, please contact: Virginia Gibbons, Ochoco National Forest Public Affairs & Fire Education Specialist, phone: (541) 416-6647. If Virginia is not available, please call the Media Desk at Central Oregon Interagency Dispatch Center at (541) 416-6800. Information is also available from the Ochoco NF at http://www.fs.fed.us/r6/centraloregon/ (see right column). THE AREA CLOSURE THAT WAS IN EFFECT FOR THE BLACK CANYON WILDERNESS AND ADJACENT FOREST ROADS HAS BEEN LIFTED.