Breaking News: Small fire at Phillips Lake under control

By Kathy Orr/Baker City Herald This aircraft was part of the effort to extinguish a small grass fire at Phillips Lake on Friday afternoon.

By Devan Schwartz

This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

A small grass fire that was reported around 1 p.m. Friday near Phillips Lake threatened about 10 buildings before crews from multiple agencies extinguished the flames.

According to GPS data roughly 55 acres were burned, said Gary Timm, executive director of Baker County’s Office of Emergency Management & Homeland Security.

The cause of the fire was still under investigation this morning.

The fire burned on the south side of the reservoir, near the Forest Service’s Southwest Shore Campground, just east of Hudspeth Lane.

A Chinook Type 1 helicopter lapped around the fire, dousing it from above. It flew from La Grande. 

Engines from various local emergency agencies came to the scene: three from the U. S. Forest Service; three from the Oregon Department of Forestry; two from the Powder River Rural Fire Protection District; and two from Sumpter Fire District. 

One person — not a firefighter — was reported to have suffered minor burns. They drove in a private vehicle to Baker City for care, Timm said.

Campers staying at Southwest Shore self-evacuated.

The blaze was under control and being closely monitored by late afternoon Friday.

“Overall, it was a great interagency effort,” said Timm.