By Nathan Wilson
Columbia Gorge News
HOOD RIVER & WASCO COS. — Last week, the Grasshopper Fire marched west, bringing hazardous air to Parkdale, forcing Mt. Hood Meadows to shut down and effectively encompassing most of the Badger Creek Wilderness until crews stopped it along Highway 35.
Between press deadlines on Aug. 3 and 10, the lightning-caused fire grew from 31,571 to 63,659 acres in size while containment rose by 4%, amounting to 23% incident wide. Last Monday, shifting winds from the east brought hotter, drier temperatures and a Red Flag warning the following day, which prompted expanded evacuation orders for the southeast corner of Hood River County.
From that point on, thick smoke blanketed the valley and a large swath of Wasco County, with air quality readings more than triple the hazardous threshold in some areas. Andrew Freeborn, public information officer for California Interagency Management Team 6, explained what that meant for more than 1,650 personnel now mobilized in response, including two hand crews from Oregon’s Air National Guard.
“When it gets real smoky and it’s poor visibility, that affects how much aircraft support we get,” he said. “But when we have a stable atmosphere, that means we’re all breathing in smoke and means a diminished fire intensity, so boots on the ground are able to engage right on that fire’s edge more effectively.”
“Everything in this fire is a tale of two stories: the weather, the fire progression, even how we fight the fire,” Freeborn added.
While crews made use of the east winds to strengthen southern containment lines near Pine Hollow, Sportsmans Park and Wamic, the fire pushed past Badger Butte, over Bennett Pass Road and was approaching Highway 35 by last Wednesday morning, subsequently spreading both north and south in the corridor. Winds from the west returned Thursday evening and improved air quality in Hood River County, but that brought another round of Red Flag conditions.
The Wasco County Sheriff’s Office then issued more evacuation orders, and Oregon’s Department of Transportation closed Highway 35 between Baseline Road and Bennett Pass Snow Park early Friday morning. As of press deadline, the highway was still closed, but the fire had not crossed it.
Crews leveraged Dufur Valley Road to prevent the fire’s northwest finger from inching closer to Parkdale, and on Friday, that finger merged with the fire’s main body as it once again turned east. Most of Saturday’s growth took place in the Fivemile Creek area and near the headwaters of Fifteenmile Creek as firing operations continued along Highway 35, which proved effective. The Red Flag warning expired at midnight.
On Sunday, resources assigned to the Grasshopper Fire provided initial-attack assistance to the Narrows, Mitchell and Austin fires on Clackamas County’s side of the Mt. Hood National Forest first reported on Aug. 8 and 9.
Mt. Hood Meadows evacuates
“We were ready for this,” said Greg Pack, general manager of Mt. Hood Meadows. “The team kicked in right away when we went to Level 3 and did all the securing we needed to do.”
On a typical summer weekday, camp counselors teach 90 kids about the mountain’s wildflowers and volcanology while other visitors hitch a lift to hike down the now green ski slopes. Smoke was severe enough that Meadows canceled its daily operations last Monday, Aug. 3, then the Hood River County Sheriff’s Office upgraded the resort’s Level 2 “Be Set” evacuation order, originally implemented July 31, on Tuesday.
Meadows has been closed since and now hosts a secondary fire camp alongside the primary one outside of Tygh Valley. Because it’s the most defensible, firefighters are sharing the parking lot with Meadows’ expensive heavy machinery, and the resort’s snowmakers are pointed at important assets like propane tanks. Sprinklers running around the buildings provide another layer of protection, as do strategically placed “water cubes,” Pack said.
Meadows also has its own wildland fire truck, and summer staff goes through wildland fire training every year. Additionally, task forces with the Oregon State Fire Marshal triaged every structure at Mt. Hood Meadows and the Cooper Spur Mountain Resort, should the Grasshopper Fire get close enough to pose a threat.
“We were taking pictures of flames from the ski area over on our side of Bennett Pass, which was kind of scary,” Pack said last Friday. “But as the crow flies, it’s still a few miles from us.”
Held east of Highway 35 as of press deadline, this is the closest a major fire has been to Mt. Hood Meadows since the Gumjuwac/Bluegrass Ridge Fire of 2006. Further west, Timberline Lodge was also under a Level 1 “Be Set” evacuation notice when Columbia Gorge News went to print.
Looking ahead
According to the incident meteorologist on Freeborn’s team, which is now in sole command of the Grasshopper Fire, temperatures will hover in the 80s this week and northwest winds should remain consistent until Thursday. Although there aren’t any Red Flag warnings in the immediate forecast, fire risk is still elevated.
“Even if we have more favorable weather conditions, the fact of the matter remains,” Freeborn said on Sunday. “Much of this forest and much of this vegetation is so dry that it doesn’t take really hot days, and it doesn’t take a lot of wind on it for it to be a really harsh firefight on the ground, so we don’t have an easy route through this fire.”
It’s all about building multiple levels of contingency lines, he emphasized. Along the northern perimeter, crews are not only directly engaged on the fire, but preparing Dufur Valley Road as a buffer and scouting beyond for additional holding opportunities. As for the fire’s southwest corner, crews are working on the Forest Road 4813 to the east, Wamic Road to the south and Forest Road 4911 to Pocket Creek as indirect fire line.
“We see how stubborn this fire is, how harsh the terrain is and this land that we’re fighting this fight in, so we’re not taking any chances,” said Freeborn. “We’re going to keep fighting this fire aggressively, and while we’re doing so, we’re going to keep putting up backup plans just in case.”
The United States Forest Service has closed 54 trails and more than two dozen roads because of the Grasshopper Fire. Visit www.fs.usda.gov/r06/mthood/alerts/closure-place-grasshopper-fire for more details.
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