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--> --> Rain helps firefighters contain Oregon fires PORTLAND (AP) - Firefighters who a day earlier had been digging lines around acres of burning brush and trees took shelter from a welcome rain Tuesday on steep, slippery hillsides in the heart of southern Oregon's Kalmiopsis wilderness. The Craggie fire was fully contained Monday evening; it burned 275 acres, said Kevin Kennedy, spokesman for the interagency fire team working on the fire from a camp at Agness on the Rogue River. Fifty firefighters remained on the scene and were expected to be ferried out for a couple days of rest as soon as the weather allowed. A crew is expected to return Wednesday in anticipation of a warming trend this weekend. "We've got them kind of hunkered down and staying dry," Kennedy said. "We're not going to leave it alone." A tenth of an inch of rain had fallen on the rugged mountain ridges west of Grants Pass by early Tuesday, Kennedy said. The fire was ignited a week ago by lightning in dense brush. Fire managers around the state said the rain and cooler weather reduced the possibility of any new large wildfires - at least for the next few days. The Twin Buttes fire that started over the weekend in the Sweet Home Ranger District on the Willamette National Forest reached 50 acres, but it was contained Tuesday after an inch of rain fell on the area, said Mike Fitzpatrick at the Northwest Interagency Coordination Center in Portland. About 100 firefighters were working on the fire. Two Redmond-based smokejumpers fighting that fire were injured Monday by rolling rocks, Fitzpatrick said. One suffered a broken collarbone and the other lacerations. Both were treated at a nearby hospital and released. Fire watchers throughout the state were celebrating the arrival of rain late Monday and early Tuesday, but they also noted predictions that another warm, drying period was on its way. "The rain's basically a flash in the pan. Fire season's not over," said David Fuller, assistant manager of the Central Oregon Interagency Dispatch Center in Prineville. A few days of hot, dry weather can lower humidity and raise fire dangers quickly, Fuller said. Those risks are exacerbated as deer and elk hunters camp in the state's forests in coming weeks. Rural residents who've been restricted all summer from burning debris could also light fires that get out of control, he said. In northern California, firefighters tripled the number of miles of fire line around the 5,500-acre fire burning in the Klamath National Forest as they got a boost from a second day of rain Tuesday. The Swillup Creek fire about 20 miles south of Happy Camp in northwestern Siskiyou County was 75 percent contained Tuesday. The blaze was the last of the Happy Camp Complex fires sparked by lightning on Sept. 14. Some 1,200 firefighters battling that blaze were aided by about three-quarters of an inch of rain, said Bud Ivey, fire information officer for the U.S. Forest Service. Officials did not predict a date for full containment. Email your... Technical questions & comments to: WebMaster Daily Tidings editorial comments & questions to: Editor Visit our other Oregon Newspapers... | Albany Democrat-Herald | Ashland Daily Tidings | Corvallis Gazette-Times | | Lebanon Express | Newport News-Times | Springfield News | Cottage Grove Sentinel | Ashland Daily Tidings 1661 Siskiyou Blvd. Ashland, OR 97520 Telephone 541-482-3456 © Copyright 2001 Lee Northwest Publishing