High Cascades Complex - Update
Northwest Interagency Incident Management Team 8, Incident Commander: Tim Keith
October 2, 2017
Special Announcements: The High Cascades Complex is now comprised of the Pup and Broken Lookout Fires. Plans to transfer management of these fires to smaller type 3 organizations are currently underway with actual transfer scheduled forWednesday morning. The Milo spike camp will remain as the incident command post (ICP) for the Umpqua National Forest managed portion of the Complex and the ICP for the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest will remain at Joseph Stewart State Park.
Hunters please be aware of heavier than normal fire traffic on Forest Roads and watch for fire personnel.
Fire Information Center: (541) 316-8352 Available 8:00 am to 8:00 pm.
Information Websites: Inciweb – https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/
Incident Management Team: Northwest Interagency Incident Management Team 8, Incident Commander, Tim Keith, is managing the High Cascades Complex. The incident command post (ICP) is located at the Joseph Stewart State Park near Lost Creek Reservoir southwest of Prospect, Oregon. A spike camp is located at Milo Academy near Milo, Oregon.
Current Fire Information: Fire perimeters and percent containment are unchanged. Resource advisors are on site and heavily involved with recommendations for implementing suppression repairs. Interior smokes will be visible on both fires until a season ending event which could take the form of rain or snow.
Pup – 8,279 acres, 42% contained. Located northwest and southeast of Hershberger Lookout partially in the Rogue-Umpqua Divide Wilderness. The north indirect containment line along Forest Road (FR) 2840 has been cleaned up and equipment is repairing road damage. Merchantable logs are being sorted, hauled, and decked for future use. Repair on secondary dozer and hand lines on the east side is predicted to finish today. Significant progress is being made along FR 6520, where vegetation and slash generated from indirect fire line construction is being hauled by multiple dump trucks to a near-by rock pit for storage and later processing into chips for transport to a co-generation plant in White City.
Broken Lookout – 19,181 acres, 27% contained. Located directly west of Union Creek on the southern end of the Rogue-Umpqua Divide Wilderness where it is burning on both sides of the Wilderness. Firefighters have completed repairing all hand containment lines along the south and southwest sides of the fire. Along FR 700, chipping of vegetative debris generated from indirect fire line construction continues. An excavator is also working along FR 68 repairing dozer line. Road drainage culverts on the north end near Jackson Creek has been completed. Work is also progressing on repairing dozer line around the contained Cougar Fire.
Resources: Total personnel assigned to the Complex – 212: 2-type 2 crews, 3-camp crews, 4-engines, 3-masticators, 1-medium helicopter, 1-dozer, 2-water tenders, 7-dump trucks, 1-log truck, 1-1og processor and 117 overhead.
Air Operations: The temporary flight restriction (TFR) over the fire area restricting aerial public access was removed yesterday. The helibase remains located at the Prospect Airport and is closed to public use. Plans are in development to repair the footprint of use. The airport is planned to reopen on October 15th.
Air Quality: For the most up to date air quality reported for your area see Air Now http://www.airnow.gov/ or the Oregon Smoke Bloghttp://oregonsmoke.blogspot.
Weather: A series of weak, upper level disturbances moved through the region with periods of light showers yesterday. The highest amount of rain recorded over the Complex was .05 inches. A dusting of snow is predicted above 6,000 ft. this morning. Today’s forecast calls for partly cloudy skies with a slight chance of light rain showers then increasing winds. Temperatures 46 - 69 degrees on the ridges and relative humidity 30 - 55%. Ridgetop winds will be north/northwest and increasing to 8 - 12 mph with gusts to 20 mph. Tuesday evening a wind event with northeast/north wind with gusts 30 mph is forecasted
Behavior: Several days of cooler weather will minimize any spread potential for the foreseeable future. Creeping and smoldering in heavy surface fuels will continue.
Closures: Emergency Fire Closures are developed to provide for public and firefighter safety. Entering behind a closure barrier is illegal. This action is considered an intrusion and is punishable by fine up to $10,000 and/or imprisonment of up to 6 months.
Multiple area, trail, and Forest road closures still exist over both Forests. “Know before you go” by visitinghttps://inciweb.nwcg.gov/
Additional Information: The Lost Creek Marina and Store located in the Joseph Stewart State Park Day Use Area on the Lost Creek Lake remains open for your enjoyment. Please check their website for hours of operation.
