News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
Larry "Smitty" Smith surveyed the top of Cache Mountain as mop-up operations got underway.
Firefighters worked as diligently to mop up the Cache Mountain fire as they did to contain the blaze as it rolled into Black Butte Ranch.
The mop-up is hard, dirty, tedious work -- but it is critical to keeping the fire from rekindling itself and raging again.
"It's got the potential for re-burn in the center of this (area) because there are still unburned fuels," said Division Supervisor Larry "Smitty" Smith on Thursday, August 1.
Smitty, a 35-year veteran of wildland firefighting, was in charge of the sector of the fire that included the peak of Cache Mountain.
The area around the summit was torched black in the early days of the fire. However, from that vantage the great swaths of unburned area within the fire's perimeter was plainly visible.
The 4,200-acre fire grew through spotting. Some areas were hard hit, others lightly burned over. Some areas were completely untouched -- and they included some dense thickets of downed trees and underbrush that would provide fuel for an inferno.
Those areas would also be very difficult for firefighters to penetrate.
"If it was all like this it would be easier," Smitty said, pointing to the charred trees and scorched soil around him.
According to Smitty, firefighters call blazes like the Cache Mountain fire an "unclean burn." An "unclean," "dirty" or "sloppy" burn leaves lots of fuel behind. That means that smoldering spots could be stirred up by wind, tossing embers into unburned areas, causing the fire to rear up and run again.
That possibility was illustrated on the Geneva 2 fire that same day.
At about 3:30 p.m., radio traffic indicated smoke from the Geneva 2 fire was rising in a plume near the containment lines. A reconnaissance aircraft was dispatched and ground crews responded to the scene.
The fire had rekindled in dry, windy conditions, getting into a patch of unburned fuel. Soon, a hot fire was torching up again, breaking out of containment lines.
Firefighters attacked the blaze with retardant tankers and helicopters and personnel pulled off the Cache Mountain fire. The fire was contained and knocked down that night after consuming about 30 acres.
However, the fact that the fire came to life again after being contained for more than a week served as a reminder that constant vigilance is required on wildfires until rain or snow puts them out.
Command over the Cache Mountain fire was handed over from the Northwest Rockies Incident Management Team to the Sisters Ranger District on Monday.
Foresters and firefighters will patrol the fire and keep a lookout for flare-ups.
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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