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HAZE Temp: 46 °F Wind: CLM at 0 mph Friday, November 22, 2002 SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion - Politics AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map EXTRA HomeLife Magazine W3 Magazine Jobs @ Mail Tribune Tempo A & E Oregon CarZone Wellness Connection Real Estate Newspaper in Education Prime Times Outdoor Journal Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People CLASSIFIEDS Find a Car Find a Home Find a Job Find Everything E SOUTHERN OREGON Automotive Communities Entertainment Publications Recreation Calendar ABOUT US FAQ What's New Advertise Home Delivery Classified Ad Contact Us Media Kit Email Story to a Friend August 9, 2002 Canada sends more help to battle Florence wildfire Ontario firefighters will get a look at different tactics and terrain By PAUL FATTIG Mail Tribune Weary firefighters battling the nearly 300,000-acre Florence fire are getting an international helping hand. A group of 128 FireRangers from Ontario, Canada, are today expected to join the army of 5,168 firefighters from throughout the nation already combating the fire. Other international representatives already assigned to the fire include Australian, New Zealand and Canadian members of the overhead team as well as 100 firefighters on the ground from Canada. "It’ll be a great opportunity for our firefighters to gain experience with different tactics and terrain," said Mitch Miller, spokesman for the Sudbury Fire Management Centre in Ontario. The FireRangers, who are employed by the Ontario provincial government, will be joined in Oregon by 61 other Ontario firefighters on Sunday. The latter will be deployed to the 32,665-acre Tiller Complex fire in southern Douglas County. "When there is a fire to be fought, we want to be there," Miller said. The Florence and the Sour Biscuit fires merged Wednesday and have now burned 296,131 acres. The combined fires, now known as the Florence fire, are 15 percent contained. The bulk of the fire is in the Siskiyou National Forest, although it also includes portions of private and other public lands. The fire has burned about 25,000 acres in California, largely within the Six Rivers National Forest. U.S. Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth and several other Bush administration officials were flown over the fire by helicopter Thursday morning. Bosworth also visited a fire camp in Selma. With a 202-mile perimeter, the Florence fire is the nation’s biggest wildfire. It has grown to the largest fire in Western Oregon since the 1865 Silverton fire burned 988,000 acres, according to the Oregon Department of Forestry. While firefighters continue to make progress in halting the fire by burning out ahead of the main fire, there is concern that increased temperatures next week could rekindle the fire’s aggressive behavior, said Forest Service spokesman Tom Valluzzi. Late afternoon winds caused a flare-up in the fire west of O’Brien Thursday, causing officials to pull a fire crew off the line, he said. However, the flare-up was within the fire line, he said. Meanwhile, a reduced fire risk in the Illinois Valley prompted the Josephine County Sheriff’s Office to extend the evacuation notice from four to eight hours. That means residents now have eight hours to evacuate if they are advised to do so, officials said. But firefighters continue to shore up lines on the northwestern flank of the fire near the hamlet of Agness, near the mouth of the Illinois River in the lower Rogue River Canyon. If the fire approaches the community, the lines have a 50 percent chance of holding, officials said. "A fair amount of that line is in, and now it’s a matter of getting it wider," said agency spokesman Mark Wurdeman. While firefighters continue to battle the blaze, Oregon Sen. Gordon Smith will hold a wildfire forum in Medford on Tuesday. The session, which is open to the public, begins at 10:30 a.m. in Studio C at KOBI Channel 5 television station, 124 S. Fir St. Back at the fire, the newly arrived FireRangers will be getting used to a new way to fight fires. "We rely heavily on the use of water," Miller said. "We usually send a crew out with a pumping unit and 2,400 feet of fire hose. We don’t use hand tools as much as your firefighters do. "We build fire lines by soaking the fire," he added, noting the easy access to water in Ontario. However, the Ontario firefighters are accustomed to using pulaskis, axes and shovels, he said. The FireRangers fought wildfires in Montana two years ago, he said. But southwest Oregon will be a different experience, he predicted. "Where they typically work in northern Ontario, there are no rattlesnakes or poison oak," he said. "Sometimes there are some black bears but that’s about it. This will be a good experience for them." Reach reporter Paul Fattig at 776-4496 or e-mail him at [email protected] Printer Friendly Version Email Story to a Friend Subscribe Archive: Click to Search Mail Tribune Home Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life Opinion - Politics | AP News | Archives | Site Map E Southern Oregon | Classified Copyright 1997-2002 Mail Tribune. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy webmaster feedback A D V E R T I S E R S