Exclusive look inside the Williams Mine fire (includes slideshow)

Today, firefighters have logged an estimated 147,000 hours fighting the fire. Last week, Incident Commander Trainee Erick Castaneda and Duke offered to give Columbia Gorge News an exclusive look into the damage caused by the Williams Mine fire.

The base camp that once housed more than 700 firefighters and personnel is located outside of town near Trout Lake High School. Today, Public information Officer Douglas Epperson said there are about 140 people stationed at fire camp. Incident Commanders — also known as the IC — make the tough decisions,  while the operations department direct logistics and Castaneda said he was recently promoted from division supervisor to IC trainee.

Division supervisors control a section of land and it is their job to manage the fire to the best of their abilities. Operations personnel are second in command and may work in different areas such as planning, finance, public information or logistics. Castaneda says he has been working directly with the firefighters.

“They give us an update, they tell us their needs, what needs to happen and what their concerns [are], and then we come up with solutions for them,” Castaneda said.

The Williams Mine fire is now 31% contained, but Duke explains there is a lot more work to be done and recent rain spots helped.

“We had two good shots of rain. And even though they didn’t last very long — duration is always more important than amount — [the firefighters] did have cool weather proceeding and following it, so it helped a lot to be able to get in there and really fight the fire directly rather than indirectly,” Duke said. She added that majority of the groundwork has been building the indirect lines and trying to get ahead of the fire path. Typically firefighters will take an indirect approach to the fire if it is not easily accessible or the fire behavior and rate of spread is significant.

Duke explained that fire personnel selected an anchor point on the south end of the fire, which was approximately three miles from Trout Lake. She said after they established an anchor point crews began working to control the fire along the western border of Yakama Nation lands. On Aug. 23, members of the Yakama Nation Tribal Council visited the Incident Command Post in Trout Lake and learned the fire had come within 1.3 miles of tribal lands but crews were able to create a containment line. Yakama Nation Hand crews were among the crews called to the front lines.

Indirect approach saves historical sites

Nicholas Steel works with the Mount St. Helen’s Forest District and is originally from New York, but found himself leading a team that was tasked to wrap the Morrison Shelter at the Morrison Creek Campground near Trout Lake on Aug. 30. It took him and his crew of about 10 firefighters three hours to wrap the shelter in a protective layer.

“This was the crew's first time fire wrapping,” Steel said. “There’s a foil component. It’s very similar to a fiberglass compound.”

He said the rolls of protective wrapping weight upwards of 50 pounds per roll. He said they have a system and it takes the entire team to efficiently and safely cover the entire structure from ground to roof.

The shelter is more than 100 years old and it is not the only structure to be fire wrapped. The Wicky Shelter and the oldest historic structure on the Gifford Pinchot National Forest, Gotchen Creek Guard Station, were among other historical sites to be wrapped.

The fire had already passed through the area, but crews went ahead and protected the building as there were plumes of smoke about half a mile away from the campground. Duke said there are flare ups among spots where the fire has been extinguished already.

“We found one just two days ago, over on the west side of the forest,” she said. “We have people working that fire right now.” She added that they did not see the fire until fire personnel did a flyover the area and reported it to grounds crews.

Technology aids detection flights

Detection flights are used after every lightning storm and new aircraft technology is keeping people safe.

Castaneda said drones have been used to patrol wooded areas, drop supplies and start prescribed burns. Drones will only be used on high priority fires — the most time-critical cases — and the Williams Mine fire met that threshold.

A video posted on Aug. 24 on the Willimas Mine fire official Facebook page said: “UAS operators have flown about 17.5 hours on the fire and have flown in every division. Each flight lasts about 12-15 minutes and each flight removes exposure to risk personnel would have to walk the same areas amongst burning stumps and hazard trees.”

The Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) may provide the unmanned aircraft. Occasionally a private, third party will assist.

Fire personnel utilize planes with infrared cameras to detect heat sources and fly helicopters mainly for patrol. Larger tankers bring water and retardant to the fire, but do they actually put out the fire?

“I said this during my talk about the Eagle Creek fire, that if retardant actually put fires out, we wouldn’t call it fire retardant. We would call it fire stopper,” Duke said. “You may have seen it look like it’s putting out fire in a light grassy fuel, and it can in that fuel type. But in timber, the best you can hope for is to slow the fire down.”

As of Monday, the fire continues to burn around Morrison Creek. According to an update released on Sept. 1, the fire “growth has been in a fire scar, mostly burning down logs from the previous fire as a low-intensity ground fire. This area is in the Mt. Adams Wilderness and is not threatening the community of Trout Lake or private lands.”

The Trout Lake community has shown support for the firefighters with "Thank you" signs, food and other kindnesses. The InciWeb information page lists Oct. 31 as the estimated containment date. Duke and Castaneda said that could change depending on weather patterns, and are hoping for prolonged and sustained rain in fall.