View Lake Let It Burn Complex Fires
Location: 12 mi E of Idanha, Jefferson Co. OR
Specific Location: Olallie Lakes area, Mt. Hood NF. Lat 44° 47´ 41″ Lon 121° 47´ 48″
Date of Origin: 08/17/2010
Cause: Lightning
Situation as of 09/09/2010 4:00 pm
Personnel: 86
Size: 4,775 acres
Percent Contained: 80%
$$ Costs to Date: $9,392,088
The fire will be turned back to the Forest at 0600 tomorrow (9/10/10) under a forest type IV management team. This will be the last reporting for this fire unless significant activities occur.
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Situation as of 09/08/2010 5:00 pm
Personnel: 193
Size: 4,775 acres
Percent Contained: 80%
$$ Costs to Date: $9,392,088
Continue to monitor the southern perimeter that is burning in the Mt. Jefferson Wilderness area. Bull of the Woods - Road prep is complete for potential future containment actions. Rehab and monitoring of the fire will continue.
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Situation as of 09/07/2010 3:00 pm
Personnel: 307
Size: 4,775 acres
Percent Contained: 80%
$$ Costs to Date: $9,246,000
Additional 20 acres burned yesterday in spotted owl stands. This is an old-growth, Let It Burn fire. The Gooberment is killing owls deliberately
NIMO calls it quits after 4 days of owl burning. Not as much fun as they thought it would be. IMT3 White shadowed Cable’s NIMO team today. IMT3 is scheduled to assume command on Wednesday, September 8th at 0600. Fire burns on.
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Situation as of 09/05/2010 3:00 pm
Personnel: 537
Size: 4,757 acres
Percent Contained: 35%
$$ Costs to Date: $8,620,200
Additional 20 acres burned yesterday in spotted owl stands. This is an old-growth, Let It Burn fire. The Gooberment is killing owls deliberately
NIMO in command.
Road closures remain in place around the Bull of the Woods Fire. Finished contingency line in the Breitenbush drainage. Continue to monitor and to prep the road system [??? It's a so-called "wilderness area" ???] with mechanical equipment for potential future containment actions. The Bull of the Woods Fire has active backing and flanking fire through heavy fuel accumulations in old growth mixed conifer and slash in harvest units [??? It's a so-called "wilderness area" ???].
Note: The reason the USFS is sitting on their fat cans watching the Bull of the Woods Fire while sucking up major double-time dollars is because it is allegedly a precious wilderness area where man fears to tred. Now we find out there are roads and harvest units in the Let It Burn perimeter.
Why doesn’t the Gooberment set fire to Washington DC instead of Oregon. We residents like it here and would prefer it if Oregon was not incinerated by dingbat flunkies from the Gooberment. Whereas Washington DC is a hell hole of freakazoid Communists and should be burned to the ground on principle.
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Situation as of 09/04/2010 5:00 pm
Personnel: 660
Size: 4,736 acres
Percent Contained: 35%
$$ Costs to Date: $8,334,000
Additional 200 acres burned yesterday in spotted owl stands. This is an old-growth, Let It Burn fire. Fry the owls.
NIMO in command.
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Situation as of 09/03/2010 5:00 pm
Personnel: 724
Size: 4,580 acres
Percent Contained: 35%
$$ Costs to Date: $7,663,000
Additional 25 acres burned yesterday in spotted owl stands. This is an old-growth, Let It Burn fire. Fry the owls.
Inbriefed the Portland NIMO IMT. Transition with NIMO tomorrow-9/4. NIMO will assume command at 0600 on 9/5.
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Situation as of 09/02/2010 5:00 pm
Personnel: 719
Size: 4,523 acres
Percent Contained: 35%
$$ Costs to Date: $6,961,000
Additional 50 acres burned yesterday.
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Situation as of 09/01/2010 4:30 pm
Personnel: 719
Size: 4,478 acres
Percent Contained: 35%
$$ Costs to Date: $6,502,000
The Bull of the Woods Fire continues to back into Elk Lake Creek and the Collowash River where heavy or sheltered fuels exist.
Planned Actions: Rehab on the View Lake and Rock Cone Spot Fire. Continue to mop up on the main Pyramid Butte Fire. Construct contingency line to the west of the Pyramid Butte Fire between the forks of the Breitenbush River. Continue road prep around the Bull of the Wood Fire.
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Situation as of 08/31/2010 5:30 pm
Personnel: 861
Size: 4,478 acres
Percent Contained: 35%
$$ Costs to Date: $5,864,000
Another 150 acres burned. No plan, no effort to contain the old-growth fire. Spotted owl habitat up in smoke.
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Situation as of 08/30/2010 5:00 pm
Personnel: 850
Size: 4,335 acres
Percent Contained: 30%
$$ Costs to Date: $5,155,000
Decline in acreage due to more accurate infrared (FLIRS) information.
Final line construction and mop-up efforts continue on the Pyramid Fire. Continued prep work on Bull of the Woods Fire contingency line. Mop-up continues on the View Lake and Red Cone fires. IMT completed ramp-down plan for Forest consideration.
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Situation as of 08/29/2010 5:30 pm
Personnel: 766
Size: 5,876 acres
Percent Contained: 30%
$$ Costs to Date: $4,689,000
Good progress on northern perimeter of Pyramid Fire. Continued road prep work on Bull of the Woods Fire contingency lines. Mop-up continuing on View Lake and Red Cone Fire. Received further guidance from Forest for contingency planning needs.
Strategies for the fires are as follows: View Lake- Full Control, Warm Springs Spot Fire- Full Control, Pyramid Butte- Confine on northern, western, and eastern perimeters- allow southern perimeter to burn in the Mt. Jefferson Wilderness Area, Bull of the Woods- Monitor and prep road system for potential future control lines.
Note: unfortunately for the forest killers at the MHNF who are all hot to incinerate old-growth, the rain is falling and their best laid plans to burn the putative “wilderness” to ashes are foiled. Ha ha, suckers. Crawl back under your government desks.
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Situation as of 08/28/2010 4:30 pm
Personnel: 740
Size: 5,817 acres
Percent Contained: 30%
$$ Costs to Date: $3,962,000
Evaluating road closures near the Bull of the Woods Wilderness Area to begin prepping road with mechanized equipment for potential indirect strategy in the future.
~80 million worth of timber alone incinerated to date. No report on the habitat destruction of Northern Spotted Owl stands. But the IMT and the Forest Supervisor are considering a potential indirect strategy, maybe, some day. Who knows?
Burn, baby, burn.
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Situation as of 08/27/2010 5:30 pm
Personnel: 647
Size: 3,758 acres
Percent Contained: 30%
$$ Costs to Date: $3,241,000
Evacuation remains in place for Olallie Lake Resort area.
Presented Forest with proposed Course of Action on all fires and received concurrence. Based on new intelligence, strategies for the fires are as follows: View Lake - Full Control, Warm Springs Spot Fire - Full Control; Pyramid/Mt. Jefferson - Confine on northern, western, and eastern perimeters, allow southern perimeter to burn in the Mt. Jefferson Wilderness Area; Bull of the Woods - Monitor and prep road system for potential future control lines.
More forest roads were closed near the Bull of the Woods Wilderness Area to begin prepping road with mechanized equipment for potential indirect strategy in the future.
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Situation as of 08/26/2010 5:00 pm
Personnel: 604
Size: 3,037 acres
Percent Contained: 30%
$$ Costs to Date: $2,731,000
Type 3 IMT withdrawn. PNW Team 2 (Type 1 National IMT, Hoff) assumed command of the fire at 0600 today. Yesterday’s strong winds and unstable conditions resulted in a 5-fold growth in the size of the fire. An 80 acres spot fire developed east of the Pyramid Butte Fire (formerly Fire 264) now on the Warm Springs Reservation. No action on fires located in the Bull of the Woods Wilderness.
A decision was made to line a portion of the Pyramid Butte Fire.
Closures for Breitenbush, Harvey and Trout Lake areas.
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Situation as of 08/24/2010 6:00 pm
Personnel: 333
Size: 776 acres
Percent Contained: 60%
$$ Costs to Date: $1,763,712
Fire 264 on the north side of Pyramid Butte made a significant push to the NW this afternoon and is now approximately 458 acres. Fire 264 is unmanned, unfought “wilderness” fire. Area closure for Olallie Lakes Recreation Area, including roads and trails, remains in effect.
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Situation as of 08/23/2010 6:00 pm
Personnel: 362
Size: 267 acres
Percent Contained: 60%
$$ Costs to Date: $1,051,697 (no update)
Lightning fires in the Olallie Scenic Area as well as the Bull of the Woods wilderness. Area closure for Olallie Lakes recreation area and portions of the wilderness. Strong east winds expected today. Fires in wilderness area unmanned, unfought, Let It Burn. Big blow up today reasonably likely.
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Situation as of 08/22/2010 6:00 pm
Personnel: 351
Size: 201 acres
Percent Contained: 60%
$$ Costs to Date: $1,051,697
Acreage in Block 15 includes 113 acres for the View Lake Fire, 24 acres for fires in the Mt. Jefferson Wilderness Area, and 64 acres fo the remaining fires in the Bull of the Woods Wilderness Area. The percent containment in Block 16 and line to build in Block 18 only pertain to fires being managed under a full suppression/perimeter control strategy.
Fire personnel are also working on a long-term analysis of ten fires burning within the Bull of the Woods Wilderness Area. To date, these lightning-caused fires have been monitored by air. Due to the spread of these fires, an area surrounding the junction of the Elk Lake Trail and Welcome Lake Trail will be closed to public access.
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Situation as of 08/21/2010 6:30 am
Personnel: 240
Size: 125 acres
Percent Contained: 0%
$$ Costs to Date: $375,000
Structures Threatened: 2 PRIM , 9 COMM , 3 OUTB
Area closure of Olallie Lakes recreation area. All roads and trails closed. Continue handline and putting in hose lay around fire. Hold fireline west of Warm Springs boundary line.
by Marsha M.
Marsha,
Fire Update August 22, 2010
1:30 p.m.
The Olallie Lake Scenic Area remains closed to the public. All campgrounds and trails are closed within this area, including a portion of the Pacific Crest Trail. Road 4220 continues to be blocked at Forest Road 46 to the south and at Road 4690 to the north of the Olallie Lake Scenic Area. The access to Breitenbush Lake is closed. No estimate for re-opening the Olallie Lake Scenic Area is yet available.
For more trail and campground closure info see [here]
by Spiff
Hello, Marsha. Can you possibly update this status? There are a lot of PCT hikers heading into this area right now. We’re watching these updates carefully so that we can know what to do. Thanks!
Spiff,
As reported above, Fire 264 is on the south side of Pyramid Butte, is unfought, and there is a strong west wind blowing. All that is right on top of the PCT. The Trail is closed and extremely unsafe today from Olallie Butte to Mt. Jefferson.
Another fire, the Scott Mountain Fire, is impinging on the PCT south of Mt. Washington. The Trail has not been closed there, as yet, but the fire is too close and the winds are too strong for safe passage.
I suggest that driving around those sections and picking up the trail either to the north (at Timothy Lake) if you are north-bounding, or to the south (at Elk Lake) if you are south-bounding, would really be the wisest thing to do.
Today is really a bad day for challenging fire (Red Alert for fires due to a major cold front, with strong winds pushing across the Cascade Crest). We’ll know more tomorrow, but all signs point toward major fire blow ups today.
Is the Pacific Crest Trail impacted? What part of the trail is closed off at this time. Aug 22, 2010. 5:30 pm