Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About The nugget. (Sisters, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 23, 2017)
Sisters baseball star is a Tiger page 6 New season brings new coach to girls soccer page 8 What air power can — and can’t — do on a fire page 25 The Nugget Vol. XL No. 34 P OSTAL CUSTOMER News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon www.NuggetNews.com Wednesday, August 23, 2017 Milli Fire burns near Sisters Be alert to health effects of wildfire smoke By Jim Cornelius News Editor What started as a small lightning-sparked fire on Black Crater in the Three Sisters Wilderness west of Sisters blew up into a raging wildfire that has burned over 10,000 acres and has dis- placed hundreds of Sisters- area residents. The Milli Fire was 20 per- cent contained as of Monday afternoon. Containment is considered as having strong control lines that are well mopped up, where there is a high degree of confidence that the fire won’t escape those lines. A perfect storm of light- ning activity, hot, dry windy conditions and competing fire priorities played into the growth of the blaze. Sisters Ranger District Assistant Fire Management Officer Jinny Reed recounted the early development of the fire for The Nugget. The fire was detected on the morning of Saturday, August 12, after lightning storms had had rolled through Sisters Country the night By Sue Stafford Correspondent News Editor Teachers are back in their classrooms, and soon stu- dents will be, too. At Sisters High School and Sisters Elementary School, they’ll be walking into revamped facilities, thanks to several bond-financed projects. And some projects will still be underway. The projects were funded by a voter-approved $10.7 million bond, augmented by a $4 million state grant. A bond oversight committee, led by recently elected school board Inside... look at the fire and saw that it had increased in size to more than 20 acres “From my vantage point I saw that the fire had started near the 2006 Black Crater Fire, full of standing snags,” Reed said. When the Milli Fire, located southwest of Sisters, flared up last Wednesday, growing from 260 acres to 3,500, smoke from the fire became a concern for resi- dents in the area surrounding the fire. For some, smoke causes minor eye and nose irritation, some develop headaches. But, for those with underlying health issues, smoke is much more than an inconvenience – it can be life-threatening and, at the very least, an irri- tant causing serious medical concerns. A c c o r d i n g t o D r. Rod Elliott-Mullens, See FIRE on page 13 See SMOKE on page 16 PHOTO BY GARY MILLER The Milli Fire burned with high intensity in tough terrain. The fire was over 10,000 acres at press time. before. The fire was three to four acres in size when detected. “Around 10:45 a.m. a full suppression strategy was approved and estab- lished upon detection by the Deschutes National Forest,” Reed reported. “(The) duty officer was granted full Work continues on school bond projects By Jim Cornelius PRE-SORTED STANDARD ECRWSS U.S. POSTAGE PAID Sisters, OR Permit No. 15 member Jay Wilkins, is track- ing the projects. “It’s just so critical to do what we said we were going to do,” Wilkins said. He noted that the district has been able to take on some additional work thanks to cost savings on materials and labor. “We’ve been able to make the dollars go a little farther in some cases,” Wilkins said. For example, the dis- trict was able to expand the planned painting of some rooms in Sisters Elementary See SCHOOLS on page 14 authority to utilize all sup- pression tools, i.e. aerial retardant, chain saws, pumps inside wilderness as neces- sary to suppress the fire and keep it small.” Keeping it small was not in the cards. Reed drove out to Forest Road 1018 to get a better Sisters was quiet for eclipse By Cody Rheault Correspondent As local residents of Sisters awoke to smoke-filled skies, many out-of-town visi- tors prepared for the coming full solar eclipse. In the yard of their rented home off South Pine Street, a small group of nine friends set up a homemade pro- jection screen to view the eclipse. They came from Palo Alto, California, Longview, Washington, and Portland and Bend, Oregon to join their friends in experiencing Sisters and the eclipse. Jeff Myers, a scientist with NASA who works at the Ames Research Center in PHOTO BY CODY RHEAULT A visiting eclipse gazer was well prepared for the brief event. Sisters was quiet, with handfuls of people watching as the sun darkened. Mountain View, California, and one of the guests devel- oped a homemade projec- tion system to view the sun. Utilizing a technique learned from an amateur astronomer, See ECLIPSE on page 23 Letters/Weather ................ 2 Sisters Salutes .................. 7 Movies & Entertainment ....13 Hike .................................20 Classifieds ..................26-28 Meetings ........................... 3 Announcements ................12 Bunkhouse Chronicle ........15 Crossword ....................... 25 Real Estate .................28-32