Ochoco WFU Update 25 Aug 2008
Incident: Ochoco Wildland Fire Used for Resource Benefit
Released: 8/25/2008
Northwest Fire Use Management Team
Matt Reidy, Incident Commander
OCHOCO WILDLAND FIRE USE COMPLEX
August 25, 2008
For further information call Ochoco WFU Fire Information at 541-416-6503 until 8 pm today.
After today, contact Virginia Gibbons at (541) 416-6647 or the COIDC media desk at (541) 416-6800.
The Northwest Fire Use Management Team will turn over command of the Ochoco Wildland Fire Use (WFU) Complex to a Type 3 Team on Tuesday, August 26, 2008.
Crews have been checking the spread of the Black Canyon Fire with localized suppression actions around the fire perimeter. Over this past weekend, lower humidity and higher temperatures assisted firefighters in locating remaining hot spots. Most smokes were in the interior. Smoldering fuels within 100 feet of the fire perimeter were extinguished. The fire remains at about 1,620 acres, of which 880 acres is wilderness.
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.
Last Sunday, August 17, the Black Canyon and Wolf WFU fires merged and grew rapidly to a point making it difficult to achieve management objectives. If the merged fire had gone unchecked, fire management specialists estimated there was an 80% chance the fire would burn past the maximum management boundaries identified for this 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.
An Area Closure is still in effect for the entire Black Canyon Wilderness. Dusty Camp and Boeing Field trailheads remain closed. The following forest roads adjacent to the wilderness are also being closed: FR 38 is closed between the junction with FR 1250 and the junction with FR 3850; FR 5810 is closed in its entirety, north from its junction with FR 58; FR 5840 is closed above its intersection with FR 5830; FR 5820 is closed above its intersection with 5830. Permittees and local landowners within the closure area will be allowed access with escorts. The closure was amended to provide additional access for hunters where it was safe to do so. Please contact the Paulina Ranger District at 541-477-6900 for further updates or other information on the closure.
The one-acre Whistler Fire in the Mill Creek Wilderness is out.
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 Central Oregon National Forest website at http://www.fs.fed.us/r6/centraloregon/ (see right column).
