Black Crater Fire Update V
July 30th, 2006
The Black Crater Fire continued to grow Saturday night, and is now over 5,700 acres. Tollgate was evacuated yesterday afternoon, bring the refugee count to 1,000. The update this morning:
Updated: Sunday, 30 July 2006 at 7:07 am
Fire Start Date 2006-07-23
Acres 5700.00
Square Miles 8.91
Percent Contained 5
Threatened Structures 300
Expected Containment unknown
Cause Lightning
More Info Fire Information: 541-549-3211, 541-549-3187, 541-549-8085, 541-549-3208, 541-549-3214Status An evacuation notice remains in place for the Crossroads, Edington and Tollgate subdivisions On 7/27 a Linfield College cabin was destroyed. The fire made a northeast run yesterday afternoon, with torching and longer range spotting.
Total People - 681
Type1 crews - 4
Type 2 crews - 18
Helicopters - 7
Fire Engines - 42
Saturday evening the Incident Team performed a seven-mile-long back burn operation along the 15 and 1510 Roads. Nancy Wilson, Fire Behavior Analyst with the Northwest Incident Managemnt Oregon Team was quoted:
“This evening’s burnout operation is intended to reduce the spread of the fire by eliminating unburned fuels between the fire and the fireline, said ” “It is an important part of the effort to secure fire line between the fire and the Tollgate community and points east,” Wilson added.
The Black Crater Fire is currently within a half mile of the Tollgate subdivision.
Cooler weather this morning could be very good news for fire fighters. Hopes are that flames will be damped by the lower temperatures. Medium strong winds are also expected, with gusts up to 25 mph from the west, which will make firefighting efforts more difficult.
A new Incident Team may be relieving the NWIMT later today.
August 2nd, 2006 at 3:28 pm
This all caused a stir when we thought the “Tollgate” spoken of was the one in the Umatilla NF, along highway 204. We were prepared to go looking for family camped nearby. But your Tollgate is another one entirely.
Anyway, good site. Good info.
August 2nd, 2006 at 6:27 pm
Thanks. I AM trying to create a stir, but not that kind.
We residents of the non-urban West need to get a little more uptight about how our forests are being managed, or mismanaged, as the case might be.
It’s no good to have to live in fear, to have evacuate our homes every year because the Government has generated another holocaust, to see all we own and love put at pointless risk, to watch the destruction of our landscape, our heritage, and our legacy to our children.
It’s no good, and it needs to be changed.