News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
Flames soared 400 feet into the air on Potato Hill just west of Hoodoo Ski Area on Monday, August 25. photo by Eric Dolson
A massive wildfire has raged in the forests west of Sisters since Tuesday afternoon, August 19.
A week after its start, the Booth Fire has covered 31,630 acres and it will almost certainly continue burning till snow flies this winter.
The fire broke out in the late afternoon and was called in at 3:23 p.m. A fire to the north at Bear Butte in the Mt. Jefferson Wilderness had been called in earlier.
The fires would soon be put under one management team and called the B&B Complex. The cause of both fires is listed as unknown and under investigation.
The twin fires sent plumes of smoke into the blue skies over the Cascades as the blazes rapidly gained ground in dense forests full of dead timber.
Youth camps and campgrounds in the area were evacuated Tuesday evening.
By Wednesday morning, the wind-driven Booth Fire had jumped Highway 20 heading south and was bumping up against Suttle Lake.
By afternoon, the fire had grown to 3,000 acres and Highway 20 had been closed between Camp Sherman on the east and the Santiam Junction to the west. Black Butte Ranch went on pre-evacuation alert and residents of Camp Sherman were warned that they could be forced to leave if the fire took off.
And take off it did on Thursday morning, August 21. By mid-morning, an awesome plume of smoke was billowing 20,000 feet into the skies above Black Butte. At approximately 12:30 p.m., the Jefferson County Sheriff, concerned about the rapid, massive growth of the fire, ordered the evacuation of Camp Sherman.
Evacuees were well-prepared and the exodus to the Red Cross Shelter at Sisters Elementary School went smoothly and without incident.
The fire raged along the ridge south of Suttle Lake, charring the landscape and leaving nothing but blackened sticks where tall trees had stood.
For awhile, it looked like the entire lake area would be ravaged.
An intense firefighting effort by structural task forces from around Oregon saved the camps, campgrounds and resorts around Suttle and Blue lakes.
The massive blow-up forced the cancellation of a presidential visit to Camp Sherman.
The fire grew to 8,000 acres, then more than doubled Thursday night, growing to 20,300 acres.
Firefighters got a break on Friday, August 24, as rain moved into the area. While little rain fell on the fire, cooler temperatures and higher humidity allowed firefighters to make some progress getting containment lines started and burning out vegetation to rob the fire of fuel.
For the next two days, firefighters worked night and day to create a perimeter along Forest Road 12 (Jack Lake Road) to protect Camp Sherman from any eastward advance of the fire.
They also shored up lines between Suttle Lake and Black Butte Ranch.
As temperatures rose and humidity dropped on Sunday and Monday, the fire kicked up again, burning especially fiercely along Highway 20 near Hoodoo Ski Area.
The highway remained closed and local officials are expecting it to remain closed through the Labor Day weekend.
The economic impact of the closure is already being felt in Sisters.
A waitress in a local restaurant reported that her tip income had dropped by two-thirds and a grocery store employee said that things had been very slow.
The Sisters Area Chamber of Commerce was forced to cancel the Western and Native American Arts Festival scheduled for the weekend.
The highway closure and the ongoing fire operation didn't allow for an event.
Merchants were left to contemplate a meager end to the summer tourist season.
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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