Fire crews strive to protect homes from 750-acre Town Gulch Fire
Published 8:08 am Tuesday, August 6, 2024
- The Town Gulch Fire burning between Sparta and Eagle Creek in eastern Baker County on Aug. 5, 2024.
Volunteers from multiple fire districts worked most of the night to set up sprinklers, trim trees and dig fire lines to protect homes, barns and other structures threatened by the Town Gulch Fire, a lightning-sparked blaze burning about 7 miles northwest of Richland.
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“It’s challenging,” Buzz Harper, chief of the Keating Rural Fire Protection District, said on Tuesday morning, Aug. 6.
Fueled by temperatures reaching 103 degrees, and fanned by frequently shifting winds, the fire, reported about 9:30 a.m. on Monday, grew from an estimated 350 acres Tuesday morning to 750 acres Tuesday afternoon.
On Monday evening the Baker County Sheriff’s Office issued evacuation notices in the area, including a Level 3 — leave now — for some properties along Sparta Road and Eagle Creek Road.
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The nearest community, New Bridge, is not within the evacuation notice area, although a Level 1 — be ready — begins just north of New Bridge.
Harper said he worked until about 2:30 a.m. Tuesday, coordinating with the Eagle Valley and Pine Valley districts.
Harper said he “feels pretty good” about the situation in terms of protecting homes and other structures.
As for the fire itself, he said it has the potential to grow again Tuesday.
The fire is burning in steep terrain with a mixture of open grassy areas and stringers of dense timber.
Kaylah Swanson, whose family lives on a cattle ranch near Sparta, said their house is about 3 air miles from the fire and within the Level 3 evacuation area, but they are staying as long as possible to protect their cattle and horses.
“It has been pretty amazing watching all the resources come in all day flying in right above our house,” Swanson wrote in a message to the Herald Monday evening. “Jet planes with retardant, multiple water planes, a black ops helicopter dipping out of our small ponds around here. It’s been pretty intense but we feel safe with the communication and resources that are all a part of fighting the fire. The fire blew up so quickly it was pretty crazy to watch. So many people jumped in so fast, though.”
Harper said the aerial armada that attacked the fire played a vital role because the torturous terrain makes it tough for firefighters on the ground.
“It was mostly an air show,” he said.
That armada included a pair of converted airliners — a DC-10 and an MD-87 — that can dump several thousand gallons of retardant in a single mission.
As of Tuesday morning the fire remained west of Eagle Creek and north of Sparta Road, Harper said.
Firefighters used burnouts — intentionally igniting fires between control lines and the main blaze — to create wider zones cleared of combustible debris near homes, Harper said.
Crews also found a ridge where bulldozers could build a line between the plateau above Eagle Creek down to the stream itself, he said.
That line is three dozer blades wide, he said.