High desert fire burns east of Sisters

Attack from the air...

A hold-over lightning fire burned on Bureau of Land Management land off Fryrear Road east of Sisters on Tuesday, July 24.

According to Central Oregon Interagency Dispatch, the fire was reported at 4:08 p.m. and had burned about three acres by early evening. No structures were threatened by the blaze.

Firefighters hit the flames from the air with one strike from a large air tanker and with smaller sorties by helicopters and small airplanes.

Units from Bend and Cloverdale Rural Fire Protection Districts responded, along with engines from BLM and the Oregon Department of Forestry.

The fire was quickly contained and by late in the week, only a couple of engines and a water tender were assigned to the fire as crews mopped up.

The lightning strike that caused the fire probably hit two weeks ago. According to a fire dispatcher, it is not unusual for a lightning strike to hold over that long.

"We'll get hold-overs two weeks away," the dispatcher said.

Hold-overs don't just happen in thick pine forests, either. Last week's fire burned on juniper studded sagebrush country.

"The juniper will get a strike and it will go down the center and smolder and won't give off any smoke till it hits the outer bar," the dispatcher said.

"We've had juniper trees where the core is completely consumed before we get a puff of smoke out of it."