Black Crater Fire: More evacuees could return home today

11:30 a.m. Tuesday - Residents of Crossroads and the Edgington Road area may be returning home on Tuesday afternoon.

Black Crater Fire Incident Commander Mike Quesinberry told a smaller-than-usual crowd at Sisters High School that he planned to tour the fire at lunch time, but that "all indications are that you folks will be back in your homes this afternoon."

Quesinberry said that the fire remained the top priority in the nation Tuesday morning. The task force of engines from around the state brought to the Sisters area to protect homes has been demobilized and will return to their stations. They were expected to be out of Sisters by noon on Tuesday.

There was more good news. The forecasted "Haines Index," a measurement of how easy it is for a fire to spread based on weather conditions, has been reduced from a "five" to a "four." The Haines Index ranges from "Two" to "Six," so Incident Meteorologist Cindy Bean was comfortable in saying that the Haines Index predicted for later in the week was moderate.

She said that temperatures were expected to be in the 80s and humidity up a little from the days when the fire first took off, when humidity was below 20 percent and temperatures were in the 90s.

IC Quesinberry told the group that a line had been cut around nearly 90 percent of the fire. A "saddle" between Millican Crater and Black Crater has some heavy timber and snow had only recently melted, so work in that area was difficult.

According to Dan Schultz of the Oregon Department of Forestry, a "mop up" line 50 to 60 feet wide had been created along the south edge of the fire and was between 200 and 300 feet wide between the fire and populated areas such as Crossroads.

Schultz said that returning the last evacuees to their homes depended on how much progress was made Tuesday and what the fire does. He did credit the night crews who "worked their tails off" in an "aggressive mop up on the east end of the fire."

"We are aware of the inconvenience. It is a difficult decision (to call for an evacuation) and a difficult decision as to when to go back in. We want to get you in as quickly and safely as possible, and so you are not impacted again."