Lightning Storm Sparks Two Fires in Forest Grove City Watershed Saturday August 17th; Oregon Dept. of Forestry, Local Crews Respond, Quickly Contain

From Forest Grove Fire & Rescue:

A Sunday August 18, 2024 update/recap on the two lightning caused fires in the Forest Grove Water Shed off of Soda Springs Road. The area is the protection district of Oregon Department of Forestry. Around 5pm last night crews backed off of the areas due to the incoming storms. Before they left, the first fire was 100% hand lined and had hose around the perimeter of the fire. The first fire was approximately 500ft from the road with easier access for crews, hose and equipment. Fire #1 had two forestry engines and a hand crew working on it. The smoke from a second fire was noted by ODF crews scouting the area. We used our drone to over fly the area and get GPS coordinates of the second fire. Additional ODF members were unable to find easy access to the fire on maps and had to hike in. The fire was approximately 4,000ft down a draw and back up a hillside from their entry point. Laying that much hose from an engine would have taken hours to achieve. With the minimal time before storms arrived, a hand crew worked to hand line the fire, which they completed 90% of before the hiked back out. Both fires were each approximately 1/8 of an acre.

Today, crews are going to continue to mop up hot spots on both fires. They’re going to utilities tree fallers to take down 2-3 trees that have fire burning high up in them. In order to get water on Fire #2, ODF firefighters plan on hiking in a portable pump to the scene and drafting from a creek near the fire. They’ll do this while minimizing the impacts it the creek and the drinking water for Forest Grove, this includes containing fuel spills from the pump and not using foam to help with mop up operations. Both fires have a 10 person hand crew from the ODF/Oregon Department of Corrections South Fork Adult in Custody work crews.

As of 9am, there had been no reported new incidents from yesterday’s storms, but ODF has crews patrolling the forests checking every lightning strike that registered a ground contact to make sure a fire didn’t start. If we hear updates from the two Water Shed fires we will update on this post, but as far as we know, the fires will be in mop up stages with no worry of the fires spreading. If we hear updates, we will update this post.

We appreciate the kind words, but these fires are being fought by ODF personnel, we only assisted with resources yesterday. All credit goes to the ODF crews and we too thank them for protecting an important resource to Forest Grove.

Photos are from Saturday, August 17, 2024 drone shots of each fire as well as a crew vehicle from South Fork.

From Oregon Dept. of Forestry, Mike Cafferata, Forest Grove District Forester, Sunday August 18, 2024:

You all probably experienced the storms yesterday. Above is a map of the lightning. Two known fires resulted (see information provided above from Fores Grove Fire), and both were contained yesterday. We will watch for holdovers as conditions start to dry.

Rainfall totals seemed to range from 1/3 to ½ of an inch. The forecast for the coming week is for moderate weather.

The Lee Falls Fire is in final stages of mop-up. We will leave some hose out there in strategic locations, but pull much of it.

.Forecast days 3 through 7……
.MONDAY EVENING…Partly cloudy with a slight chance of showers.
West winds 5-7 mph.
.TUESDAY…A chance of showers. Mostly cloudy. Lows 52-57. Highs
67-75. Northwest winds 4-6 mph. Minimum humidity 50-60%.
.WEDNESDAY…A chance of showers. Mostly cloudy. Lows 51-56.
Highs 66-74. West winds 3-6 mph. Minimum humidity 65-75%.
.THURSDAY…Showers likely and a slight chance of thunderstorms.
Mostly cloudy. Lows 51-56. Highs 64-70. Northwest winds 4-6 mph.
Minimum humidity 65-75%.
.FRIDAY…A slight chance of showers. Partly cloudy. Lows 49-54.
Highs 69-76. West winds 3-6 mph. Minimum humidity 55-65%.
.SATURDAY…Mostly cloudy with a chance of showers. Lows 51-56.
Highs 66-73. West winds 4-6 mph. Minimum humidity 65-75%.

We will drop to public use fire danger level of Moderate, but leave the industrial fire precaution levels unchanged.

Public Use Restrictions:

NW -1: Stay at Moderate (blue)

NW-2: Moderate (blue)

NW-3: Moderate (blue)

IFPL Restrictions:

NW-1: Stay at Level 1

NW-2: Remain IFPL 2

NW-3: Remain IFPL 2

Information on restrictions will be kept current at: https://www.oregon.gov/odf/fire/pages/restrictions.aspx

We are continuing a text service that will cover the Forest Grove, Tillamook, and Astoria Districts for real-time fire season information, such as IFPLs, Fire Danger Levels and Public Use Restrictions.

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