Timely work by Oregon Department of Forestry (ODF) firefighters saved a Burns-based juniper reclamation business from losing equipment during the Grouse Mountain Fire’s active run towards the city of John Day on August 8.
Joseph’s Juniper Inc. had been conducting a 116-acre juniper harvesting and processing project on private rangeland in the Little Beech Creek drainage. About one-quarter of the project area had already been treated, with rows of thousands of felled and bunched juniper logs scattered throughout the unit as well as bundles of finished juniper poles for game fencing near a central processing site. Owner Gerard Joseph LaBrecque, also known as Gerard Joseph, was on the site on Wednesday evening as the lightning fire burned in grass, brush and juniper to come to within 300 yards of his portable sawmill, skidder and three trailers. He estimated over 5,000 of the bunched juniper stems were burned during the first evening of the fire. He and his three-person crew evacuated the area just before midnight.
On Thursday morning, Joseph and his crew were granted access by ODF to the fire area to check on the status of the fire and their equipment. The equipment was still intact and the owner left the work site later in the day to return to Burns. His crew remained to continue monitoring the fire. Then late in the afternoon, with winds shifting and the fire building energy for its run towards John Day, the crew informed Joseph that the fire was on the move again, even re-burning some of the rangeland scorched the night before. They had left the work site in a hurry, not feeling it was safe to stay. Joseph anxiously contacted ODF’s John Day Unit Office for assistance in learning the fate of his equipment.
Meanwhile on the fire lines, Kirk Ausland, ODF division supervisor, was closely tracking the fire’s behavior in the same area and directing his firefighters towards the same work site.
“The timing was critical,” said Ausland. “Extreme fire behavior was occurring on three sides of the equipment when I arrived. Our priority at that time immediately shifted to saving Mr. Joseph’s business property.”
Embers from the fire were already burning under the trailers. Ausland estimates that if firefighters had gotten there five minutes later, all of the equipment could have been lost. Instead, the actions taken by the firefighters prevented any of the equipment or trailers from being burned. However, six bundled units of finished fence posts were lost as the fire front passed by.
“I was pleased when fire officials called me and told me our equipment had been saved,” said Joseph. “The actions of the firefighters on the ground were outstanding.”
“In this day and age, for an agency to talk the talk and then walk the walk is unheard of,” Joseph went on to say. “I am grateful to ODF for their efforts.”
Joseph also said he was proud of his crew for putting safety first and making the right decision to leave the fire area when they did.
Ultimately, the Grouse Mountain Fire also burned one barn that firefighters determined was not defensible during the fire’s Thursday evening run. No other structures have been reported damaged on the 12,076-acre blaze. Losses of livestock and grazing resources have yet to be quantified.