Fire closes forest trails

Three lightning-caused fires merged into a single blaze Friday in the Elkhorn Mountains north of Granite, forcing a group of campers to evacuate a wilderness lake and prompting the Forest Service to close three hiking trails.

Crews contained the 30-acre Drinkwater Complex, which burned near Baldy Lake, on Sunday evening, Debbie Wilkins, information officer with the fire-management team, said this morning.

The fire burned on the west side of the Baldy Creek valley, about seven miles northeast of Granite.

A small section of the fire is inside the North Fork John Day Wilderness.

The Forest Service fire lookout atop Mount Ireland, just south of Baldy Lake, reported the three fires Thursday evening.All were sparked by lightning bolts from the same thunderstorm, Wilkins said.

By Saturday morning 80 firefighters were digging control lines around the fire, and a helicopter equipped with a bucket was pouring water on the flames.

Fire officials were especially worried about the thickets of subalpine fir trees, Wilkins said.

Subalpine firs are particularly combustible because their limbs extend close to the ground, and their needles are rich in a resin that’s easily ignited.

“The only thing that would cool those off was bucket drops from the helicopter,” Wilkins said.

The Drinkwater Complex is just a few miles west of Sloans Ridge, where a lightning fire that started almost 14 years ago to the day (July 30, 1996) burned 10,500 acres along the North Fork of the John Day River.

Forest Service officials initially let the Sloans Ridge fire burn, following a policy that allowed lightning-caused blazes to fulfill their historic role.

After the fire grew much faster than agency experts expected, they declared it a wildfire and called in hundreds of firefighters.

The Forest Service hasn’t let any lightning fires burn in the Elkhorns since 1996.

The agency has, however, allowed several blazes to burn in the Eagle Cap Wilderness during that period.

Wilkins said cooler temperatures on Saturday, combined with gentle winds and higher humidity, helped fire crews prevent the Drinkwater Complex from turning into a repetition of Sloans Ridge.

Although the Drinkwater Complex didn’t actually burn across any trails, Forest Service officials did close all three paths leading to Baldy Lake, Wilkins said.

Those trails probably will re-open on Wednesday, she said.

The helicopter initially dipped water from Downie Lake, about three miles southeast of the fire, Wilkins said.

On Saturday Forest Service officials granted permission for the chopper to get water from Baldy Lake, which is closer to the fire but inside the wilderness, where federal laws governing the use of heavy equipment are more stringent.

The decision to dip water from Baldy Lake also forced people who were camped at the lake to leave, due to the potential hazard of the helicopter hovering over the lake, Wilkins said.

She didn’t have the campers’ names.

“They weren’t too pleased” about having to evacuate, Wilkins said.

Lightning started more than two dozen other fires across Northeastern Oregon Thursday and Friday.

Most burned less than one acre.

The larger blazes, besides the Drinkwater Complex:

• Rabbit Fire, 20 acres, about three miles northeast of Unity Reservoir. This blaze is on private land, protected by the Oregon Department of Forestry.

• Bear Claw Canyon, 27 acres, 15 miles northwest of Ukiah, also on private land.