ODF’s Incident Management Team 3 takes command at noon today of the Horse Prairie Fire, following briefings by the Douglas Forest Protective Association, which requested the team.
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| Above: Flames race through a stand of young trees over the weekend at the Horse Prairie Fire. Photo by Kyle Reed, DFPA. |
The Horse Prairie Fire started Saturday afternoon 12 miles west of Riddle and eight miles southeast of Camas Valley, where the incident command post will be located. The fire’s size is estimated at about 450 acres. The fire is burning on both private industrial forest lands and Bureau of Land Management forest lands, which including stands of young trees, second growth timber and logging slash. No homes are currently threatened by the fire.
Overnight, fire crews from multiple agencies, industrial landowners and logging companies worked on suppression efforts. Crews focused their efforts in creating fire trails around the perimeter of the fire, utilizing bull dozers and hand crews. As of Sunday morning, approximately three quarters of the fire has been trailed. In addition to the wildland fuels burned by the fire, several pieces of logging equipment in a nearby operation were destroyed by the Horse Prairie Fire.
Today, firefighters will work on creating fire trails around the southern edge of the fire, which is currently uncontained. Additional crews will work to improve and secure existing fire trails around the remaining portions of the fire. Fire resources assigned to the Horse Prairie Fire today include 173 firefighters, six water tenders, four bull dozers, one excavator, four type 2 helicopters and one type 3 helicopter.
The National Weather Service has issued a Red Flag Warning for the area, due to the predicted hot, dry and unstable atmosphere conditions over the fire. These atmospheric conditions have the potential to influence fire growth on the Horse Prairie Fire or any new fire start.
Safety for both the public and firefighters remains the number one priority. Fire officials are asking the public to stay out of the fire area and be aware of the increase in fire traffic in the Tenmile and Camas Valley areas.