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Winds fan brush fire near Trail By Mark Freeman TRAIL � Unseasonably dry grass and shifting winds helped feed a Monday afternoon grass fire that darted through as much as 20 acres of land near Trail, offering firefighters a grim foreshadowing of what may be in store for them this summer. The fire, in the 500 block of East Fork Trail Creek Road, was only about 2 acres and creeping along flat ground when firefighters arrived shortly after 1:40 p.m. But shifting winds pushed flames through grass, considered as dry as it normally is in late spring, giving firefighters fits as it sprinted across fields and threatened several structures. "It was just so strange, " said Chief Bob Miller of Jackson County Fire District 4. "These are the fires we usually see in May." The grass, which was on a south-facing slope, was dry because of drought-like winter conditions as well as warming from the sun, Miller said. The dry conditions allowed the fire to spread quickly and shoot up a steep hill before Miller�s crews, along with help from Fire District 3 and the Oregon Department of Forestry, were able to snuff the flames about 3:15 p.m., Miller said. Such fires are rare in winter months, when portions of Trail Creek are usually either snow-covered or saturated with rain and runoff. "Good thing this wasn�t summertime," Miller said. "It would have gone up the hill, right into the timber and it would still be burning up there." Flames did not reach any nearby structures, which included a home, two barns a garage and a mobile home, Miller said. The fire�s cause was under investigation Monday evening, said Terri Frazier, dispatch supervisor for the state forestry�s Central Point office. State foresters estimated the fire�s size at close to 20 acres, and that at least some of the flames scorched private lands, Frazier said. While unseasonably dry grass is, in part, to blame for the size of the fire, the ground beneath it was moist enough that fire vehicles had trouble maneuvering in the mud. Fire District 3�s 1,000-gallon brush truck � a vehicle designed to fight grass fires � became bogged down in mud and had to be pulled out with a wrecker, Miller said. The smaller, pickup-sized firefighting trucks moved more easily through the mud, and the four on the scene were able to get flames under control, Miller said. Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.