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News Release
USDA Forest Service
Pacific Northwest Region |
Crews Fight Fire with Fire
Burnout Operations will be Key to Eventual
Containment of Troublesome Clark Fire
July 22, 2003 ~ 6:00 p.m.
Clark Fire Information: (541) 937-2890 or (541) 937-2912
Bernie Pineda, Peter Frenzen, Gregg Thayer, Brian Ballou
Northwest Oregon Interagency Incident Management Team
Lowell, OR -- Burnout operations are continuing as fire
crews work their way south along the east and west sides of the
fire. If everything goes according to plan the burnout should be
completed by mid-week and fire crews will have made significant
progress towards meeting containment objectives.
Given the complicated nature of the terrain and fuels in which
the fire is burning, careful planning and timing of the burnout
operation is essential. Crews begin each day's burnout operation
in the late afternoon when the atmospheric inversion lifts and burning
conditions are favorable. As the inversion lifts, the burning intensity
along the main fire front increases and the fire begins to develop
a vertical smoke column. Once a column develops, the fire begins
to pull air in from the sides, in much the same way that air is
drawn into a fireplace chimney. Fire crews take advantage of the
resulting breeze to steer the burnout and any resulting hot embers
toward the center of the fire. When conditions are right, helicopters
are used to ignite unburned areas that can't safely be accessed
by ground crews. By carefully managing where and what fuels are
burning in relation to the smoke column, fire officials can use
fire to strengthen existing firelines and rob the approaching fire
of fuel.
"This has been a complex, coordinated operation involving
hundreds of firefighters and pieces of mechanized equipment,"
said Dale Gardner, Unified Incident Commander for the Willamette
National Forest. "The tremendous amount of safe work that has
occurred over the last five days is testimony to the capability
and professionalism of our wildland firefighters." "We've
got the best of the best, working in the worst of the worst and
they're doing a tremendous job," said Mark Labhart, Unified
Incident Commander with the Oregon Department of Forestry.
NIGHTLY INVERSION AND DRIFTING OF SMOKE TO ADJACENT AREAS WILL
CONTINUE: Nightly down-valley winds during early morning hours
will continue to carry smoke from burnout operations to areas west
of the fire including the Willamette Valley. Areas north and east
of the fire will experience smoke in the late morning and afternoon
when up-valley winds channel the smoke in that direction. Hourly
information about air quality can be obtained on-line from automated
monitoring stations operated by the Lane Regional Air Pollution
Authority (LRAPA) (http:www.lrapa.org/
advisory.aqi.htm). LRAPA has temporarily suspended field burning
to lessen the impact of smoke from the Clark Fire.
FIRE UPDATE: As of 6:00 p.m. Tuesday the fire was at 3,200
acres at 25% containment with 4 miles of line remaining to build.
A total of 1,100 personnel are assigned to the fire. Line crews
are being supported by 79 engines, 8 dozers, 31 water tenders and
three heavy lift (Type 3), one medium (Type 2) and three light (Type
3) helicopters. Estimated cost to date is $5.1 million.
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