8/20/2014 Middle Fork Ranger District Fire Information Update

           Middle Fork Ranger District Fire Information Update

            Deception Creek Complex• Staley Complex• Middle Fork District Initial Attack

Willamette National Forest

August 20, 2014 10:30 AM

Fire activity increased yesterday during the afternoon hours. As the inversion lifted and heat hit the slopes the fires showed visible smoke.

There is a transition planned for 6 AM Thursday, from Rocky Mountain Team A T2 Team Russell Incident Commander and The Gila/Las Cruces Type III to Oregon Team 4 T2 Watts Incident Commander.

• The plan today on the Deception Creek complex is to continue with contingency lines, and construct dozer line along roads 5850 and 549.
• The Staley Complex is 67% contained, this includes the Staley, Davey and Pool fires.
• There are multiple fires in this complex. The status is as follows, 6 not located, Pool is at 70% containment, Staley is at 67% and Davey 60%, nine are in control status and five are considered out.
• Fire crews will continue constructing indirect line, mop-up and patrol. Today's plan includes prepping areas for burnout operations and will implement when it is safe and conditions permit.
  
  
  The Waldo Lake campgrounds are open and the air quality is good.

• There is a closure in effect, on the Jim Weaver Loop Trail (also known as the west Waldo Lake Trail #3590), this closure will include a number of connecting trails on the west side of Waldo Lake.  
  http://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/willamette/home/

• An Emergency Area Closure is in place in the vicinity of these fires, and forest users are being asked to avoid the area, with public safety being a concern due to large equipment on narrow roads. http://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/willamette/home/

Staley Complex

• Direct lines on all three (Staley, Davey and Pool) fires are holding.  There was a significant decrease in heat along perimeters.
• Crews on the Staley Fire will be completing indirect line along northeast perimeter in preparation for a burnout when conditions permit.
• Total Fire acreage determined on Staley Complex: 275 Acres
• The Staley Complex is still responsible for a 250,000 acre Initial Attack (IA) area. No new IA fires were reported yesterday, the total fires remain at 21.

Crews	Engines	Tenders	Dozers	Total personnel
11	23	6	3	470

Deception Creek Complex

• Fire suppression activities on the Deception Creek Complex were concentrated on building indirect fireline near the remaining three fires in the Deception Creek drainage.
• Fallers, road brushers, and masticators continued opening heavily overgrown forest roads, providing firefighters a safe "anchor point" to contain the three remaining fires.  Anchor points are advantageous locations, usually a barrier to fire spread.  The anchor point is used to minimize the chance of being flanked by the fire while the line is being constructed. Firefighter safety is dependent on well-established anchor points and provides for a variety of suppression strategies and tactics.
• The Cherokee Interagency Hotshot crew is working on handline construction in areas where mechanical line construction is not feasible. 

Crews	Engines	Masticators/	Fellers	Road brusher	Skidders	Total personnel
3	6	4	2	1	2	251

Middle Fork Ranger District Initial Attack

• Mop-up (Extinguishing or removing burning material near control lines, felling snags, and trenching logs to prevent rolling after an area has burned, to make a fire safe, or to reduce residual smoke) continues on the 22 acre Spirit Lake Fire. 
• Crews are continuing to patrol several of these 10 day-old lighting fires to insure no heat remains.

• There are total of 33 fires with 11 declared out, seven contained and in patrol status, five staffed and 10 are unable to locate. Fires range in size from a single tree to just under 30 acres.
      

Crews	Engines	Tenders	Dozers	Total personnel
5	8	1	2	132

Helicopters

5 shared