Firefighters douse local blaze

A Sisters firefighter mops up on a structure fire. photo provided Sisters firefighters got a handle on a house fire northeast of Sisters on Tuesday, July 27, before it got out of hand and spread to the surrounding woods and homes.

According to Sisters-Camp Sherman Rural Fire Protection District officials, the fire was started by a smouldering cigarette. The blaze burned the deck off the home at 68929 Bay Place, east of the Sisters Airport. The flames scorched the siding of the house and heat broke windows, but the fire did not get into the structure.

It was a close call.

According to Fire Chief Tay Robertson, without quick action by nearby workers, "this fire would have most probably consumed the whole house and spread the fire into the wildland interface area."

The workers spotted the fire just after 2 p.m. and attacked it with garden hoses, buying precious time for firefighers to respond and douse the blaze.

Sisters-Camp Sherman Rural Fire Prtotection District sent out two engines and a water tender; Oregon Department of Forestry responded with an engine and a command vehicle and U.S. Forest Service personnel also responded.

Chief Robertson said the fire offers important lessons for Sisters residents:

• Smokers should douse their cigarettes in water, not just crush or drop them in a container.

• Residents should have an emergency escape plan. A fire such as Tuesday's can spread quickly.

"Know how to get out of the house and out of the neighborhood quickly if you need to," Robertson said.

Hot, dry conditions make everyone in the Sisters area vulnerable to fire. Robertson clearly thought the Sisters neighborhood dodged a bullet. If firefighters had not been able to stop it where they did, "it would have taken resources from all over the area to control that fire," he said.