As the Cedar Creek Fire continues to burn, resources from around the country are coming to Central Oregon to help our local firefighters.
A Type 1 incident management team from Alaska arrived in Redmond this week to help the incident team in charge of the Deschutes County side of the Cedar Creek Fire. They staged at Mount Bachelor Friday morning.
“What we’re here to do is to take the pressure off of those folks and manage the Deschutes side here, the east side, so that they can focus on the on the west side of the fire and take care of the values on that side.” said Peter Butteri, the training incident commander.
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Butteri says the focus will be on structure protection in Cultus Lake and the Cascade Lakes Highway. They’ll be getting more resources, including fire crews, in the next several days.
Governor Kate Brown on Friday invoked the emergency Conflagration Act for the Lane County portion of the Cedar Creek Fire. The fire is threatening the community of Oakridge, which is on a Level 2 “Be Set” evacuation.
In addition, Highway 58 was closed Friday between Milepost 37 in Oakridge and Milepost 70 at Crescent Lake due to fire activity.
The Cedar Creek Fire was first reported on Aug. 1. It was started by lightning. It has grown to more than 33,000 acres and is 12% contained.
The InciWeb incident update systems reports firefighters were being placed at strategic locations on Friday to prepare for changing conditions. A Red Flag Warning is in effect through Saturday night.
Firefighters were working on fireline from north Waldo Lake to Charlton Lake connecting to Forest Service Road 4290 to hold the fire from continuing to move south.
On Forest Service Road 2421 firefighters were watching for any spot fires and holding the fire at the road. Crews will be engaging the spot fires north of the Winchester Trail trying to extinguish them if safe to do so.
Firefighters are also coordinating with the Middle Fork Ranger District and Lane County Oregon State Fire Marshal representative in order to provide initial attack support to any new fire starts that could occur.
