Several people told JPR they’d received information that contradicted those accounts, but they wouldn’t identify their sources. 28 meeting in Brookings, few in the audience seemed mollified by the official explanations. Evacuations were ordered and the fire ultimately came within five miles of town before rain and cooler weather helped damp it down over the following weeks.Īfter the Sept. In five days it grew from 6,000 acres to more than 91,000, jumping the Chetco River and burning over the containment line meant to protect Brookings. 15, fanned by 45–mile-per-hour winds funneled down the Chetco River valley, the fire exploded. “Our fire behavior analysts, they factored in the Chetco Wind Effect into the models and even with that, it greatly outpaced the model predictions of how that fire was going to grow,” he said. Prendergast said that was the game-changer. The plan was to deliberately burn from that line back toward the wildfire, creating a safe buffer.īut before that could happen, the weather shifted, triggering the hot, dry wind conditions known as the Chetco Effect. Instead, managers decided to build a containment line miles to the southwest, to cut off the fire if it moved toward Brookings. Prendergast said that’s why crews were pulled back from direct engagement with the Chetco Bar Fire. “Before we expose our wildland firefighters to the hazards found in the wildland fire environment, there has to be a reasonable probability of success, and that we’re not going to place their lives at an unacceptable risk.” Prendergast told the crowd at Brookings-Harbor High School that a rising toll of firefighter deaths has led to a national policy. Long-time Medford resident John Prendergast was on the national fire management team that took command on July 29. In fact, Edwards said, during the first day helicopters had dropped more than 50 buckets containing over 17,000 gallons of water. “You need someone the ground to go in direct and knock out the fire on the ground. “They can’t do it alone with just aviation assets,” he said. Edwards dismissed the claim that a few aerial water drops could have killed the fire early on. The decision was made to pull back and figure out a better way to attack the fire. “The lack of safety zones and escape routes became really evident that we’re probably gonna get somebody hurt if we remain engaged like we are,” he said. He said it soon became clear the terrain was too treacherous to keep firefighters on the ground. Edwards said firefighters who rappelled into the remote scene struggled with steep, unstable slopes. The decision was made within 15 minutes.”įire officer Monty Edwards assumed command of the fire on July 13, the day after it was first reported. “Just wanted to state right off, this was never a fire that we wanted,” Trulock told the crowd. About 120 people showed up at the high school gym to hear what fire managers had to say.Ĭraig Trulock, with the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest, denied the fire was deliberately allowed to burn. This is the atmosphere Forest Service officials faced at a public meeting in Brookings on Sept. And then we would be talking about what a great summer we’ve having.”Īngry tweets and Facebook posts amplified the indignation. "But it could have been taken care of back then with a few helicopter buckets. “I have no doubt that the terrain where this started, the original quarter acre, is very difficult and possibly dangerous for on the ground," he said. Conservative talk radio host Bill Meyer at KMED in Medford repeatedly blasted the Chetco Bar Fire response. On his YouTube video blog, Lewis accused the Forest Service of allowing the Chetco Bar fire to burn as part of a liberal agenda. The US Forest Service could have prevented this easily, and they didn’t.” And there is no excuse for it whatsoever. As the fire grew and the air thickened, tempers flared. It also – along with other major fires - created unhealthy air quality over western Oregon and northern California. It burned in an area of more than 191,000 acres, forcing hundreds of people to evacuate and destroying several homes. As the fire raced across the landscape, driven by high winds, the firefighting effort came under growing criticism.įor a few weeks in late summer, Chetco Bar was the nation’s top priority fire. The Chetco Bar Fire, near Brookings on Oregon’s south coast, simmered for weeks in the scars of previous fires in the Kalmiopsis Wilderness before breaking out in mid-August.
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