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Firefighters hope to ring Klamath blaze by Sunday Mail Tribune / Bob Pennell A firefighting helicopter dips into the Klamath River for water to cool the 1,400-acre Jones Fire in Northern California Friday afternoon. Officials expected to contain the fire by Sunday. Besides flames, area features rattlers, poison oak By PAUL FATTIG YREKA, Calif. - Shirley Dunning awoke at 4:30 a.m. Friday to see an eerie red glow blanketing the steep wooded hillside overlooking her home along the Klamath River. "The whole side of the hill was red hot," she said. "I got real concerned until I saw those firefighters sleeping out in the yard. "I figured they had everything under control, so I went back to bed," she added. "The heck with it." While the Jones Fire that erupted Wednesday afternoon is far from being controlled, firefighters hope to have the roughly 1,400-acre blaze contained by fire lines by Mother's Day. But that depends on what Mother Nature has in store for the fire burning about 15 air miles south of Mount Ashland in the Klamath National Forest, they caution. "Sunday is our target, but we'll see what happens with the weather," said Greg Chandler, a Bureau of Land Management employee from the Rogue Valley who has fought fires for 25 summers. "One of our main concerns was the structures down along the river," said Chandler, an operations section chief on the fire. "But we've got that southern flank lined now." A line of firefighters in yellow, fire-resistant shirts and forest-green pants could be seen snaking up the smoky mountainside late Friday afternoon. The mountains rise some 1,900 feet from the river to the mountaintops, Chandler estimated. "It's rugged - we have some areas that are three-hour walk-ins," Chandler said. "It's steep. We got the rattlesnake and poison oak. It doesn't get a lot worse than this." But no accidents had been reported by the roughly 500 firefighters and support staff on the scene Friday evening. A clerical error had earlier indicated the number of firefighters at 700, according to Mindy Sherrieb, a spokeswoman for the Fire Interagency Management Team. Most of the crews are Forest Service and BLM employees based in Southern Oregon and Northern California. Others included Oregon Department of Forestry, California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, state corrections and even a few firefighters from the city of Chico. The fire is burning in a mosaic fashion, crawling on the forest floor in places, then torching trees a stone's throw away. The region has pockets of heavy timber but is largely covered with sparse conifers, brush and dry grass. The region is dusty dry, having received only about 30 percent of its normal precipitation during the winter. A low-pressure system predicted to move into the area this weekend would help firefighters, Sherrieb said. "There are a number of wind shifts to contend with in the area, especially since the fire is burning up a canyon," she explained. "It's natural for the wind to constantly shift in terrain like this. Any time you have wind on a fire you really don't like it, because it will test your lines." Although the resident had a permit to burn for the burn barrel which sparked the fire, he will be liable for the cost of suppressing the fire, said Jerry Burke of California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. The suppression cost as of Friday morning was $333,000, Sherrieb said. Two "heavy" helicopters and a smaller helicopter were dipping their buckets into the Klamath River to help firefighters douse hot spots all day Friday. "Those firefighters have all been really great," said Dunning, who, along with her husband, Ray, had retired in their riverside home in 1976. "They've been fantastic." Their neighbor a half-mile upriver where the huge helicopters were filling their buckets agreed. "We're grateful for these aircraft," said William Smith, an area resident for 10 years. "We're always glad to see them when we have a fire." Anyone traveling state Highway 96 should expect short delays on a five-mile section of the road near the fire this weekend. 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.