Black Crater Fire is spreading

After 12 hours of relative calm, the Black Crater Fire was again spreading to the north and northeast Tuesday afternoon, July 25, from its location in the Three Sisters Wilderness about 10 miles southwest of Sisters.

Firefighters struggled to control the fire blazing in dense, beetle-killed timber and dead and down trees on the south and east slopes of Black Crater. Estimates of the fire's size range up from 120 acres. Two helicopters were working the fire on Tuesday afternoon; an air tanker that had been in attacking the blaze was recalled to serve on another fire.

By 4 p.m., a wide dark smoke cloud towered over the Cascades as the blaze spread into the east crater of the mountain and spotted out in front of the main fire. Light ash was falling just west of Sisters. Residents and tourists alike watched the cloud darken the hot afternoon sun.

A dozen cars were parked along the McKenzie Highway west of town where viewers could watch the power of an active wildfire.

Back in Sisters, a Northwest Interagency #2 fire team arrived to assume management of the fire picking up where a Central Oregon Interagency #3 fire team which has chased the fire with limited aerial support.

At an 11 a.m. briefing at the Incident Base at Sisters Middle School, over 70 fire team members from both teams, local emergency agency representatives and several homeowner's association members gathered to receive a 45-minute briefing.

Fire officials stated that additional resources and fire management personnel were expected to arrive this afternoon.

The Black Crater Fire is competing with several other blazes for limited resources.

"Our first priority in Central Oregon is fast initial attack on new fires," an interagency spokesperson stated at the briefing. "No. 2 (priority is) the 400-acre Geneva Fire near Lake Billy Chinook, No. 3 the Black Crater Fire and No. 4 the Maxwell Butte Fire south of Mitchell."

All speakers stressed the need for paying particular attention to the safety of firefighters in the rough terrain of Black Crater, in a region of the state known for erratic wildfire behavior.

Resources on the fire today included six 20-person crews, six engines, five water tenders, and three bulldozers, according to information officer Cathy O'Brien.

"Because 95 percent of the fire is within the wilderness, we cannot use the mechanical equipment there, but it can be used outside," O'Brien said. "We do have authority to make air tanker drops, helicopter drops and operate power saws in the wilderness."

Two helicopters have been on the fire for the past day, but an air tanker that arrived late Monday to make drops on the fire that evening and early Tuesday morning was recalled to Medford, leaving firefighters with less support.

The fire presumably started by lightning during the Sunday evening storm was reported Monday morning at 11:17 a.m. by Henkle Butte lookout. It spread rapidly in full view of many residents in western Deschutes County, spotting ahead downhill to the east. The fire burned hot through stands of beetle-killed lodgepole pine and downed trees on the ground, similar to conditions that burned in the 2003 B & B Complex Fire just a few miles to the north.

McKenzie Pass Highway 242 remains closed between the east side snow gate 12 miles west of Sisters to the snow gate on the west side of the Cascades. Fire managers asked the Oregon Department of Transportation to close the highway to ease traffic congestion and to protect the public with many fire vehicles traveling this route to the fire.

The closure prevents people from traveling the scenic road over the Cascades and from visiting Dee Wright Observatory at the summit.

"I recommend that this highway remain closed for the duration of this (fire) both for the public's and firefighters' safety," said Sisters District Ranger Bill Anthony at today's briefing.