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51 °F 5 Day Forecast Wednesday, December 17, 2003 Today's News | Classifieds | Autos | Homes | Jobs | Tempo | eSouthernOregon | Home Delivery SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion - Politics AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map EXTRA Newspaper in Education Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People CLASSIFIEDS Find a Car Find a Home Find a Job Find a Rental Place an ad eSouthernOregon Automotive Communities Entertainment Publications Recreation Calendar CUSTOMER SERVICE Frequent Questions Advertising Information Home Delivery Employment Contact Us Media Kit Network Affiliate Email Story to a Friend July 13, 2003 Ed Reilly's Sterling Creek-area home was nearly burned by last year's Squire Fire. Mail Tribune / Jim Craven Residents of areas burned by fires wait — and hope they’re well prepared this year By PAUL FATTIG Mail Tribune Ed Reilly knows the dragon isn’t dead. Sleeping, perhaps. But the longtime resident of the Sterling Creek drainage half a dozen miles south of Jacksonville will tell you it’s a late sleeper, one often rising at summer’s high noon to breathe fire on local woodlands. "I’m a believer," he said. "I know that fires are going to happen. But I also know there are things we can do to reduce the threat." Reilly and his wife, Jody, know the threat well. One year ago today, the roughly 2,800-acre Squires fire was ignited by a lightning strike on nearby Squires Peak. The fire crept within 25 feet of their home. Advertisement A veteran wildlands firefighter, Reilly and his family kept the dragon at bay by cutting grass on the south slope around their home and thinning brush and small trees from a forested area on a northern slope of their 20-acre parcel. "But when it came down through the manzanita, it seemed likely we were going to lose our place," said Reilly. "I’ve been at a lot of fires, but the fire intensity that came through here with that wind . . . that fire was really roaring." The Reillys were among hundreds of rural Southern Oregon and northwestern California residents from Trail to Gasquet threatened by wildfires last summer. The nearly half-million-acre Biscuit fire, which burned mostly on the Siskiyou National Forest in Josephine and Curry counties, was the nation’s largest in 2002. It was also the largest in Oregon in more than a century. But the explosive Squires fire, which jumped from 800 acres to 1,800 acres in one day, forced the evacuation of some 200 homes in the Sterling Creek and Little Applegate drainages. Firefighters and volunteers saved all of the homes, but five outbuildings and an unoccupied trailer were destroyed. The Squires fire fueled national attention when President Bush visited the burned area in August 2002 to announce his Healthy Forests Initiative. A year later, grass has grown back over the area burned in Gilson Gulch near the Reilly home. Green leaves of scrub oak and buck brush are poking up out of ground once burned barren. But the charred skeletal remains of a manzanita thicket a stone’s throw north are a constant reminder of the dragon having passed their way. It wasn’t the first time. Judging from burned trees, a fire swept through the area in the late 1960s, observed Reilly, a longtime Forest Service employee who is now helping manage woodlands for the Bureau of Land Management. The Reillys moved to the site in 1974. While he was fighting a wildfire on national forestland in summer 1987, a lightning strike ignited a small fire on their property. An Oregon Department of Forestry wildlands crew quickly knocked it down after being alerted by Jody Reilly. But the Squires fire was more stubborn. "When the fire came over the top about 7:30 (p.m.) — the wind was blowing about 30 mph," he said. "It spotted in several places. The whole hillside just took off — very impressive. "We got the heck out of here for a couple of hours," he added. But he and Jody and their son, Jason, 24, who has fought fires during the summer while going to college, had cut the grass and thinned the forestland. The fire encircled their home, burning within 25 feet at one point, then moved on. A mile south of the Reillys, Bjorn Everson and his wife, Cecile, who have lived on their 26-acre parcel for nearly 30 years, saw the dragon approach to within 100 yards of their comfortable home, a picturesque, mostly underground, off-the-grid dwelling. The fire burned over 11 acres on their property, destroying two outbuildings and about $30,000 worth of mature trees, he said. One of the outbuildings held 2,000 books. "When we started seeing the fire backing downhill against the wind, we knew we were in trouble," he recalled. "But I’m delighted in having all that brush gone," he said during a recent stroll into the burned area. Young seedlings, mainly pine, have been planted where the fire swept through. The Eversons also have installed wattles made of native juniper to prevent erosion on steep hillsides. A former schoolteacher who now directs forest restoration projects, Everson was one of a handful of local residents selected to meet privately with Bush to talk about wildfire issues. "I made the point to him that the small-diameter stuff is the problem," he said of the wildfire threat. "I told him that we have to thin from below — get the little stuff out. "I’m a little nervous he wants to take the large trees to support the timber companies that help fund him," he added. "The real problem is the brush. Of course, nothing economically supports the removal of brush. It’s a dead-end dollar." But Everson saw something that warmed his heart during the fire. About 50 people raced to the Everson home when they learned it was threatened. "It was amazing to see the outpouring of help," Everson said. "There were all kinds of people here — young women, kids, old men. There were people we didn’t even know here as well as neighbors and friends." They worked hard to keep the fire away from the main house and nearby well house, he said. "But that fire went where it wanted anyway," he said. "It was such an incredibly powerful force." That fiery force removed a lot of brush, allowing Mother Nature to offer a resplendent bouquet of wildflowers this spring. But it also resulted in a bountiful crop of grass. "I’m nervous about all this grass now," Everson said. "With this spring we’ve had, it’s high and now it’s volatile." Back in Gilson Gulch, Reilly also is impressed with the neighbor-helping-neighbor attitude that rose out of the Squires fire. With Everson’s help, he recently repaired his farm tractor so he could mow the grass around his home. Neighbors who didn’t know each other before the fire are now talking about ways to reduce the fire danger, he said. Many are turning to the Applegate Fire Plan, developed by residents to prevent wildfires, he added. "Fire can be a wonderful restorative agent and is part of the ecosystem here," Reilly said. "But now that we have so many people living in the wildland urban interface, it’s impractical to let fires burn. "We need to manage the forests and shrublands to both reduce fuel hazard as well as help restore the vigor and species diversity that is often lost due to the fire exclusion," he added. The Reillys seeded a portion of their property with native grass and vetch to help their land recover. They also cut back and chipped dead willows growing out of a seasonal stream that runs past their home. The willows are now growing back, along with snowberry and chokecherry. In the conifer forest on the north slope, the fire burned with a low intensity. While it didn’t harm the tall trees, it burned the poison oak. But the Reillys, who have turned roughed-in dozer lines within their forest into a low-impact road system to manage it, will continue to thin the brush and remove small trees. After all, they know the dragon eventually will awake. As recent fires outside Williams and Cave Junction have shown, Reilly said, "the intensity in fire behavior now is starting to reveal that the large fuels haven’t recovered fully. "The likelihood of a fairly eventful fire season is already here." Reach reporter Paul Fattig at 776-4496 or e-mail him at [email protected] Mail Tribune Home Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life Opinion - Politics | AP News | Archives | Site Map E Southern Oregon | Classified Copyright © 1997-2003 Mail Tribune. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions Website Feedback 3 WEEKS FREE! 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