Steve Rhea with Heppner Volunteer Fire and Rescue keeps a careful watch on the Oxbow fire moving toward him and the highway at the Oxbow Village Tuesday. (Baker City Herald/S. John Collins).

By JAYSON JACOBY

Dixie Taylor lost her electricity to the McLain Creek fire, and the blaze busted her water pipe, too, but so far the flames have spared her home.

Taylor lives along the Homestead Road about two miles north of Oxbow.

She’s one of approximately 90 homeowners whose properties at the eastern edge of Baker County are threatened by either the , both of which were sparked by lightning on Sunday evening.

As of this morning, though, neither of the blazes, which are about nine miles apart, had burned any homes or other structures.

For that Taylor credits the hundreds of firefighters who are trying to corral the flames, which have spread across an estimated 26,240 acres of grass-and-sage country cured to tinder during the heat wave that has blistered Baker County since last week.

Occasionally gusty winds and single-digit humidity, combined with steep terrain, have complicated the fire crews’ task.

andquot;I can’t say enough good things about the firefighters,andquot; Taylor said this morning. andquot;They park these big trucks right next to your house and keep the fire away.andquot;

Taylor said the McLain Creek fire is the biggest blaze that has burned on the Oregon side of Hells Canyon near Oxbow since she moved there in 1960.

Since Tuesday, when Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski invoked the Conflagration Act at the request of the Baker County Board of Commissioners, 100 fire engines have arrived to protect homes, most of them in the Oxbow area or along Highway 86 between North Pine Creek and Oxbow.

About 750 people are working on the two blazes, which are being managed together as the Foster Gulch Complex.

The fire camp is at the fairgrounds in Halfway.

Taylor said the lights went out at her home Tuesday night. Flames scorched several wooden power poles that support an Idaho Power Company line that runs north from Oxbow.

Taylor said this morning that Idaho Power crews were replacing burned poles.

She has been staying since Tuesday with her daughter, Julie Stromer, who owns the Hells Canyon Bed andamp; Breakfast at Oxbow.

Taylor said that without electricity, she can’t run her pump which siphons water from Hells Canyon Reservoir, water she uses to irrigate her property.

Taylor said she doesn’t have drinking water, either, because flames burned the pipe that leads from a spring above her home.

Another of Taylor’s daughters, Jeanne Dennis, lives along the Homestead Road about two miles north of Taylor’s home.

Taylor said that when she drove to Dennis’ home Wednesday night, the fire was emitting andquot;a big glowandquot; on the slopes above the site of Homestead, a town founded about 1900 near the Irondyke Mine.

Although the Homestead post office closed in 1965, the historic Homestead School, which was built about 1903, still stands.

Taylor said she didn’t drive beyond Dennis’ home, so she doesn’t know how close the flames came to the school.

Keeping track of the fire is difficult, Taylor said, because smoke continues to cast a pall over Hells Canyon.

andquot;It’s so smoky you can’t see anything,andquot; she said.

So smoky that Taylor moved her mother, Ruth McGinness, to La Grande until the air clears. McGinness lives next door to Taylor.

andquot;She’s 88, and she doesn’t need to be in this smoke,andquot; Taylor said.

Fire officials have recommended residents in and around Oxbow leave the area, but evacuations are not mandatory.

Fire officials continue to limit public access to the Oxbow area.

Highway 86 is closed between the Wallowa Mountain Loop Road intersection, which is about seven miles east of Halfway, and Oxbow.

The paved road between Oxbow and Brownlee Dam is closed as well.

Idaho Power is allowing people who have whitewater rafting permits for the Snake River to drive the road that runs along the Idaho side of Hells Canyon Reservoir to Hells Canyon Dam, said Brian Bombie, who works at the company’s Oxbow compound.

But that road is closed to people who just want to get a look at the fire.

andquot;We’re trying to keep sightseers out, to avoid conflicts with all the fire traffic,andquot; Bombie said.

Idaho Power has evacuated its campgrounds at Copperfield, which is at Oxbow, and at Hells Canyon Park, which is on the Idaho side about seven miles north of Oxbow.

The company’s two other nearby parks Woodhead and McCormick remain open, Bombie said. Both parks are on the Idaho side of Brownlee Reservoir.

The Foster Gulch fire, which started near the summit of Halfway Hill on Highway 86 between Richland and Halfway, has burned south and east since Sunday. Flames have crossed the Sag Road south of Halfway and moved to the shore of Brownlee Reservoir.

The blaze is not yet threatening Brownlee Village, where eight Idaho Power employees and their families about 25 people in all live, Bombie said.

The company has not recommended those residents evacuate, he said.

andquot;But everybody’s well aware of what’s going on,andquot; Bombie said.

Neither fire has affected Idaho Power’s operations at Oxbow or Brownlee dams, Bombie said.

He said Idaho Power workers are striving to protect wooden power poles that support an electricity transmission line that runs west from Brownlee Dam.

Crews used bulldozers to carve 15-foot-wide fire lines around the poles, and so far none of the poles has burned, Bombie said.