News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
The Geneva 2 fire blew up on Tuesday, July 16.
photo by Matt Cyrus
After long and weary days of battle, fire crews have gained the upper hand on the 1,130-acre Geneva 2 Fire northeast of Sisters and the larger, 21,144-acre Eyerly Fire near Lake Billy Chinook.
The Eyerly Fire destroyed 18 homes in the Three Rivers Subdivision and severely scorched the terrain along the Metolius arm of Lake Billy Chinook.
The Geneva 2 fire was much smaller and less destructive, but it provided for some tense nights for residents of scattered rural homes north of Sisters.
Larry Brewer was first notified that there was a fire burning in a canyon just north of Squaw Flat on Sunday, July 14, when a neighbor spotted smoke. That wasn't so easy to do, Brewer noted, because the air was already thick with smoke from the Eyerly fire.
Brewer, who lives in a log home way out Wilt Road, drove to the location.
"It just immediately started putting up a lot of smoke, a huge plume -- so it was very hot," Brewer said.
Fire crews had the fire lined out at about 100 acres by Monday, but winds kicked up and created spot fires, which grew until the fire covered 400, then 800 acres -- and it continued to grow.
"We could see the flames at night, we could see trees burning," Brewer said.
The lightning-sparked blaze burned partly on a ranch owned by Lynn Miller, who publishes the Small Farmer's Journal in Sisters.
A helicopter refills at a temporary tank, on its way to bomb the Geneva 2 fire north of Sisters.
Although Miller has irrigation ponds on the property, they were too shallow to handle the 650-gallon tanks dipped in by firefighting helicopters.
According to Brewer, the Forest Service dropped off a water tank for a helicopter on Miller's land, but the tank was missing some plumbing connections. Brewer hustled in to Sisters to buy what was needed and Miller got the tank assembled.
Miller and Brewer got irrigation pipes attached to the tank -- literally with bailing wire, Brewer said -- and started running water into the tank.
Once the tank was up and running, Brewer said, helicopters "ran water out of there every 2-1/2 minutes."
Brewer credited Miller for his efforts in getting that water resource set up and keeping it running.
"I think his persistence played a major role in controlling that fire," Brewer said. "Although it looked like that jury-rigged connection was going to fall off any minute, it didn't."
Ultimately, the wind that whipped the fire to its 1,130-acre size helped save the homes in the area -- because it blew away from them.
"If it had blown in the other direction, it would have been a different story," Brewer said.
Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.
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