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All but four of 40 fires contained in Klamath National Forest By CHRIS BRISTOL A lightning-caused fire that burned more than 1,000 acres near Happy Camp, Calif., has been contained, as was a smaller blaze in the Williams area. The East Fire, 20 miles south of the California border, was the biggest of 40 fires touched off by a lightning storm last weekend in the rugged Klamath National Forest. It was contained Friday after scorching 1,147 acres. Tricia Abbas, a spokeswoman for the ORCA Interagency Incident Management Team, said fire crews contained or controlled all but four of the blazes Friday. "We were managing 40 fires at one point," she said, "then we made the East Fire a priority because it got so big." Crews were hampered by steep terrain and the threat of "rolling material," typically rocks and falling limbs from snags, Abbas said. Of the four fires that crews have yet to contain, the largest was the 25-acre Stein Fire in the Marble Mountain Wilderness, Abbas said. Up to 950 firefighters battled the fires under the jurisdiction of the Forest Service. Most were being sent home Friday, Abbas said. Meanwhile, crews worked through the night to contain a blaze that burned 25 to 30 acres on a BLM tree plantation about three miles west of Williams. The Cedar Flat Fire was contained Friday at noon, according to Shelly Hoffer of the Grants Pass Interagency Fire Center. The origin of the fire was under investigation, Hoffer said. She declined to speculate on the cause, except to say that lightning seemed unlikely. Officials who fear the fires may be a harbinger of worse to come tightened restrictions this week on the use of chainsaws and machinery on all land in Southwest Oregon protected by the state Department of Forestry. That includes state and federal Bureau of Land Management acreage. Abbas said a combination of high temperatures, low humidity and no precipitation -- coupled with a dry east wind that blew throughout the spring -- have made conditions ripe for wildfires. "Things are really dry out there," she said. "We're encouraging everybody to be careful with fires." Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA