Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Forest Fire August 26, 2022

The area I like to bear hunt is closed because of the activity surrounding the fire. Won't let us in there.

There have been Two WLFS deaths in that cluster of fires.

That fire is a lot bigger than 1200 acres. That was Friday morning's number. We had a cold front with some wind pass through, also a plume built, then collapsed friday during the day. As of this morning it's listing between 4300 and 4700 acres and has burned all day, sometimes with a bit of wind. It jumped the river yesterday afternoon but instead of going north like I figured it would, it jumped farther to the east where it was curving. It is bad country .. conglomerate rocks that are decomposing, steep as hell, loose pieces rolling on top of hard, steep surfaces, and covered in canyon live oak which has a great deal of "grease" in it .. it's basically a bomb.

We're not getting good info on the fires now except changes / upgrades in the level of evacuation notice / warning. Gov't offices are closed. Probably get better info when Monday comes along and the office staff are back to update the web sites, etc. In the mean time, there's a web page and you can see a bit of what's happening via inciweb though it's out of date.

https://www.facebook.com/rumcreekfire2022/
https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/8348/
https://joco.maps.arcgis.com/apps/w...Vdv3MFgUqdYHBw7UTvFtkGf3LQ_WqdHyGqB690AQ

Tom

Was able to talk with some Fire Fighters this evening when I took the wife out to the Texas Roadhouse over in Medford. Bought their table their first round of drinks, just to thank them for what they are doing. They are assigned to the Rum Creek Fire, which is what they are naming the one burning west of us here.

The Feds have taken over the fire. That means the incompetents on the B Team are now in charge. The 5 guys me and the wife were speaking to over dinner, are out of state fire fighters, brought in by the Forest Circus. Saw a long convoy of trucks and crews from down in California taking the exit off of I 5, where I live coming home from Medford earlier. The Gentlemen we spoke over dinner with, were three brought in from Alaska, 2 from New Mexico and 1 from Colorado. There was another party elsewhere in the restaurant, from the same crew.

The fire has expanded dramatically since Saturday, and has turned from heading north, to heading east... into the local towns here. Its gone from 11 miles to my place, and is now down to 5 miles away from the last 24 hours. The road is now closed leading out to where all the action is.

Getting sick of this crap every year. NOT the fires so much as getting tired of the mismanagement, just to be able to rack up a bigger budget for next year from the Feds.
According to the EPA, these fires get to the point it is like inhaling smoke that would be equal to smoking 7 cartoons of cigarettes PER DAY!

For liberals that are so concerned about the environment, they sure don't mind polluting the atmosphere if they can make money off of it.. and to hell with the health of every man, woman and child.

Then to add insult to injury, while the wife and I were driving over to Medford to go out to eat, at Central Point off of I 5, there was a fire that wasn't there 4 hours earlier in the day, when I went by there. At 6 PM, there was about 15 or so fire fighting vehicles on the frontage road, and several helicopters dropping Water on a wooded area of brush mainly...at 8 PM there was a large ground crew they were getting ready to deploy, which had just arrived. The Rum Creek fire, was started by Lightning.... The fire over in Central Point was started by ARSON.

Idiot 2 summers ago, set the Green Way ( a cycling path that runs about 50 miles thru the Rogue Valley) about 3500 plus homes were destroyed and Lord knows how many people displaced. Now we have some more "Socialist Homeless" transients, doing George Soros bidding once again.

They catch these people, they should not charge them with anything... use a stun gun on them, and lay them out in the area they set on fire and let the fire consume their dope drugged asses....

Was thinking not a few days ago, we got lucky and escaped all of these annual summer fires this year... and then at the 12th hour... here they are right back.... Monday and Tuesday, temps are suppose to be in low triple digits.. 100 degrees plus...

God bless the guys who are out there fighting this stuff in steep terrain.. and the air assets that are fighting it from above.
I sure hope they caught the idiots that set the fire over on the Green Way in Central Point this evening.. lock their asses up, and never give them a day in court... just like the people who were locked up, on the trumped up cards for the Jan 6th " Insurrection"...

Update from the links given by "Tom".. thanks Tom.

Seems that the fire grew from 1200 acres on Friday night to 8400 acres in the last two days and heading East...toward town, and should be hitting the western suburban area in the next 24 to 48 hours if this keeps up.

They've started evacuating people this afternoon.

Hoping the best for you and yours. I had one get within
5 miles or so at my place one year, you could see the glow.

John, if I figured right, the fire must be awfully close to Fireball2's place. Have you heard from him lately? Hope they are ok.

Yall stay safe.

It's a little on the technical side, but a fellow by the name of Zeke Lunder posts a you tube video on current western fires, he is a former fire mapping tech for the FS and really does know his schidt.10 times better than the sanitized govt press releases. Good commentary on strategy too. His thoughts on air attack should be presented to the House Ways and Means committee. Anyway check it out, title is "The Lookout".

I was there last week. It was pretty wild to see that much burning with 0 contained and not much going on to stop it. Pretty smokey most places we went.

Things are changing rapidly Randy... evidently the exvac area is still to his west, but his residence is on the western part of Merlin here...that you would consider 'in town.' There are homes on property/ acreage to his west. The terrain that is burning is so steep, that they can only really fight it with air Assets.

I stopped over at Roy's on Saturday, and talked with him while he was doing some home repairs.

This morning, its awfully smokey outside, which indicates the wind is blowing eastward AND/OR the fire is also getting closer..

When it starts getting near homes at least the Forest Circus, will step up its containment efforts.

If it threatens my neighborhood, with EVAC orders, that means it has jumped interstate 5... that won't be good at all... as that hwy will be closed off, essentially closing the only major route on the west coast.

This stuff doesn't scare me as much as it just pisses me off....the Forest Service's efforts is more about increasing their budgets each year, by making the most out of each fire they get.. ran by bureaucrats...Let it burn is their attitude... could care less about the effects on people's health, or their property... heck even the fire fighters I got to speak with last night said the exact same thing.. and they are being paid to be on the efforts to put it out.

The US Fire Starters just declared ours "officially contained"
Hope yours doesn't get as big, or cause as much damage.
Four dead from drowning, now.

Can you elaborate on this please?

Air attack makes for a very nice optic, the public loves it, but just like military situations, it doesn't win any battles. Pink mud, ammonium phosphate does not put out fires, it slows the advance. Dozer lines, backfires and favorable weather is what stops fires. You folks in SW Oregon have a right to be worried, because historically the winds pick up dramatically in September. How did firefighting become less successful over the last 25 years? Forest Service fire tactics have changed. They used to go direct attack, a dozer literally would have 'one track in the black' when possible. It was hot, it was dangerous, but it worked. Now FS policy is the 'big box' strategy...back off two or more ridges, build a line and backfire it and hope it the line holds. It seldom works. But it's safe, really safe. If you go to the US Dept of Labor website on job hazards, you will discover that wildland firefighting is not even in the top 20. If you remove fire vehicle accidents it's not in the top 50. 25 years ago, they hired or conscripted real pros, loggers who worked on the steep terrain every day...now, it's poorly trained eager young people with a lot of grit, but no clue skillwise. The forest didn't magically change to a tinderbox in the last 20 years, the climate is drier in the west but not dramatically...what did change was USFS policy...and just like every single other govt entity, it's totally incompetent.

It's still a few miles away but headed our way. I've got the place completely defendable. Sprinklers and manageable vegetation all around, a gravel driveway looping the house, and sprinklers on the house roof. I still need to install sprinklers on the shop roof.

If you are rural, have a well, and depend on Pacific Power, they will cut power when the fire gets close. Been there 3 times in the last 10 years. I have a well and a gen but don't have enough water recovery in the well to keep the shack and outbuildings drenched. Hoping for the very best for you guys on the Rogue, but Kate appointing the State Fire Marshal to be in charge of a Federal fire is a potential train wreck. He is first a politician and second an urban fireman...this will not sit well with the Feds, and the Feds have all the toys and the money. Folks homes at stake with the politicians having a dick measuring contest.

This afternoon, got smoky and down to 150 yds visibility.

now its 7 PM.... smoke has dropped visibility down to less than a 100 yrds at my house right now...

further west, its worse.