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Hillcrest fire burns five acres Mail Tribune / Drew Fleming The five-acre fire off Hillcrest Road burned dry grass, trees and brush above a gravel pit. No structures were burned in the Friday afternoon fire, visible south of Roxy Ann from most of Medford. By SARAH LEMON A wildfire blackened five acres of grass, brush and trees Friday on ranch land along the 7000 block of Hillcrest Drive. Firefighters contained the fire around 4:30 p.m. Crews were scheduled to finish the mop-up phase before dark, said Dennis Turco, Oregon Department of Forestry fire prevention specialist. No structures were damaged and no one was injured in the fire. The fire started above an old gravel quarry about 200 feet off the road. An ODF mountaintop lookout first spotted the plume of smoke around 3:15 p.m. Firefighters used an "inside-out" technique to battle the blaze, said Turco. Engines drove into the middle of the fire, where vegetation had already burned, and firefighters worked from there to push the flames out to the perimeter where a bulldozer created a fire line. This technique is safer than knocking down flames from the outside of a fire, said Turco. Five ODF engines and four Medford Fire Department engines responded. A helicopter doused the flames with water dipped from a nearby pond. Elevated humidity and winds were on firefighters' side. Friday's relatively high level of humidity caused the fire to burn at a lower intensity, said Turco. Northwest winds pushed flames away from the closest homes on Pineridge Drive about 200 yards from the fire. However, flames did not spread because the scene of the fire was somewhat sheltered from wind, Turco said. Fire investigators are not certain what caused the fire, but it does not look suspicious, Turco said. The origin of the fire was too far away from the road, he said, which is not typical of arson. Local residents told firefighters the gravel pit area is used for a shooting range. A Pineridge Drive man, one who reported the fire, showed investigators where he believes the fire started above the gravel pit. Having eyewitnesses point out exactly where they first saw flames is helpful to fire investigators when they may be working with "false indicators," Turco said. The direction blades of grass bend is one factor firefighters consider when determining a fire's origin. But spot fires caused by winds, such as those on Friday, can cause the grass to bend in a way that creates false indicators, said Turco. Sparks from power lines knocked together by wind can also cause a grass fire, Turco said. Reach reporter Sarah Lemon at 776-4487, or e-mail [email protected]. Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.