Update on Tumblebug Fire - Oct 8
Incident: Tumblebug Complex Wildfire
Released: 10/8/2009
(Oakridge, OR) The 14,650 acre Tumblebug fire, located 22 miles southeast of Oakridge, continues to smolder. Recent warm and sunny days have resulted in some smoke re-appearing in that area, as well as in the community of Oakridge. Crews are continuing to keep an eye on these hot spots and are putting out all smokes and drowning all hot spots that are located within 150-200 feet from the fire perimeter. This work includes removing snags and trees near the line that are still burning and could spread hot embers. Incident Commander, John Poet had the following observation about the fire "This fire is not out. It's more like a bear in hibernation; we're confident it will lay low from now and through the spring, but we'll be back here next year keeping an eye out for any spots that may hold their heat and pop back up next summer."
The other activities occurring within the fire area right now are rehabilitation from the suppression activities and an assessment of whether or not any rehabilitation is needed due to the effects of the fire itself. The suppression-related rehabilitation includes chipping large amount of brush and debris which was cut along roads in preparation for possible burnout operations. Crews are using a machine called the Crambo 5000; a large tub grinder on tracks. Slash, limbs, small cut trees and debris are loaded into the machine with an excavator. The resulting chipped material is either being spread next to roads to retard future growth of brush and weeds or stockpiled to be used later for erosion control on dozer lines and landings. Crews are also constructing waterbars on dozer lines and hand lines, repairing damage to recreation trails and campgrounds and gathering excess equipment to be taken back to the warehouse, cleaned and stored for next year. Closures remain in effect and can be seen on inciweb.org. In regards the closures, Natural Resource staff officer Wade Sims said "I appreciate the great cooperation we've had from folks in terms of the closed areas: we're still in there - lots of trucks, equipment running and snags coming down each day. I hope to have the area open again as soon as it is safe to do so."
A Burned Area Emergency Response (BAER) team arrived yesterday; the team is led by TJ Clifford from the Boise NF. The ten person team will be assessing the fire damage and preparing a plan to mitigate the effects on soils, hydrology, fisheries, wildlife, etc. They will be looking at ways to reduce the short term impact to natural resources and habitat from the coming winter storms. The BAER team will assess the how severely the fire burned throughout the area, but preliminary observations are that much of the lower portions of Tumblebug and Echo creeks were burned very hot but the upper reaches are more of a mix between heavily burned and lightly burned. "I'm pleased to have our restoration specialists come out and assess the fire; we're working hard to ensure that these roads and streams are in good stable condition before the winter weather sets in." said Incident Commander, Poet.
The Tumblebug fire is the third largest fire on the Willamette NF since the late 1800's when records are available. Larger were the 19,990 acres of the B&B fire that burned on both the Willamette and Deschutes NF near Mt Jefferson, and a 16,700 fire in 1910. Suppression costs to date are 12.05 million.
