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Winds, slopes hamper firefighters photo by Bob Pennell Firefighters Lucus Shellabarger of Central Point and Guy Montgomery of Applegate take a break from fighting the Quartz Fire on Monday. By PAUL FATTIG LITTLE APPLEGATE - A plume of smoke billowed around the remote house in the Dog Fork of Yale Creek as the Quartz Fire continued its run around mid-afternoon Monday. The fact that white smoke, not black, was rising around the house was good news, said worried fire officials watching from a ridge top two miles to the south. Black smoke would mean the house was engulfed, they noted. "They are probably burning fuels around the house to save the house," explained Marti Graham, a spokeswoman for the Oregon Department of Forestry. Cantrall-Buckley Park closed RUCH - The mouse won't be roaring in the Applegate Valley. A public showing of the movie "The Mouse That Roared," with Peter Sellers, planned for Friday in Cantrall-Buckley Park, has been canceled because the park is closed while it's being used as a staging area for firefighters battling the Quartz Fire southeast of Ruch. Free movies are presented throughout the summer at Cantrall-Buckley Park on Fridays and Medford's Bear Creek Park on Saturdays. The Medford showing is not affected, coordinator Bob Campbell said. Some 600 firefighters were camped at the park Monday. "And more are coming in all the time," said park staffer Karin Barclay. She said the park was forced to cancel all the reservations that people had for the coming week. County park officials are helping the search for openings at other parks, she said. Park manager Rick Barclay said he would show the film at fire camp, but the showing won't be open to the public. "The park is closed," he said. "The state has taken the whole park over. "We have people showing up, and we can't accommodate them." "That house is surrounded by a wooded area," she observed. "We have to fight structure fires with structure firefighters. It complicates the situation." Nearly 950 firefighters and support personnel were attacking the blaze, which threatened a dozen remote homes in the area. Overhead, four air tankers dropping rust-colored fire retardant and eight helicopters laden with huge buckets of water filled the smoky sky. The Quartz Fire, sparked by a lightning storm Thursday night, grew to 4,500 acres Monday evening, destroying on Sunday what officials described as one home, a cabin and an outbuilding. Most of the homes in the narrow, steep, heavily wooded area could not be defended safely by firefighters, officials warned. Local residents say two homes, including the cabin, have been lost in the blaze. The names of those who lost their homes were not available. "We're banding together as a community - creating our own support network," said Ilene Rubinstein, a resident of Spirit Gardens, a community garden near where Yale Creek flows into the Little Applegate River. Evacuees have brought four horses to Spirit Gardens, which is now believed to be out of harm's way, she said. "People are using us for a home base," she said. "We try to shuttle people up there every few hours. We've cut a huge amount of trees around homes to protect them." Anyone wanting to help those being evacuated can call Spirit Gardens at 899-8107. About 15 air miles south of Medford, the fire is burning toward the south and southeast. The fire is about a half-dozen miles southwest of the Ashland watershed. "We have been highly urging residents (in Dog Fork) to evacuate, but it's not mandatory," said Mary Marrs, spokesman for the Rogue River National Forest. "The problem is there is only one road in there," she added. "We had some people evacuate but some have chosen to return." While the fire has been burning largely on Bureau of Land Management and national forest land, the area has pockets of private land. Groups of dusty, tired firefighters could be seen along the road leading into the Dog Fork area Monday afternoon. "We're just trying to do what we can along the flanks," explained Bob Butler, 30, head of a fire crew from Grayback Forestry Inc. of Merlin. "It blows up every day after the inversion lifts," he said of late afternoon winds. "You have to work safely out there, and not get out in front of it. You just have to keep on the flanks." Applegate Valley resident Guy Montgomery, 40, brought his older Dodge Power Wagon equipped with an engine backed by a 250-gallon water tank. "Dry and steep - and there is a lot of fuel out there to burn," he said. "It doesn't look good. With the winds you normally get out in the Applegate, the fire can really move out." Roseburg resident Herb Hobi, 58, who also brought a private fire truck, agreed. "A guy really has to watch his behind out here," he said. "We've driven through places where you could feel the heat coming from both sides." Up on top of a point known as Observation Peak, the forest has been blackened by the fire. The needles on a small fir were twisted to point in the direction taken by the racing fire. "That's called a 'leaf freeze,' explained Dennis Turco, fire prevention officer for the Oregon Department of Forestry in Jackson and Josephine counties. "I would guess the flames here were 300 feet high in the afternoon," he said, noting the blaze killed the trees in that area. But the fire has also burned in a traditional mosaic pattern, creeping along the forest floor in some areas, leaving mature trees untouched. "We'll have to watch those areas - they have reburn potential," Turco said. Rogue River area resident Bob Wilken, 45, a former smokejumper and volunteer at the Rogue River Fire District, has seen it all before. "Any season is dangerous," Wilken said. "But the fact we have this cumulative drought effect, that puts us into a more dangerous fire situation. "You take the drought, the fuel buildup and the topography, and a fire like this will make a run. The main thing has to be the safety of the fire fighters." Reach reporter Paul Fattig at 776-4496 or e-mail him at [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.