Wednesday, July 25, 2018 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
19
Fire crushes hopes of wheat farmers
By Gillian Flaccus
Associated Press
PHOTO PROVIDED
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PORTLAND (AP) —
Farmers rushed to save their
livelihoods as a wildfire
roared through vast Oregon
wheat fields Thursday and
crushed their hopes at the
peak of what was expected to
be one of the most bountiful
harvests in years.
Farmers used water tanks
on the backs of pickup trucks
and tractors to battle flames
whipping across fields.
One man was found
dead near his charred tractor
Wednesday, July 18, appar-
ently overrun as he tried to
clear a strip of land to protect
a neighbor’s property.
Farmers who grow tens
of thousands of acres of soft,
white wheat typically bound
for Asia said they are con-
fronting walls of fire up to 30
feet high and wind so strong
that it tosses embers ahead of
the fire’s leading edge.
“It’s been day after day
after day of pretty horren-
dous winds and then the fire
creates its own wind,” Alan
von Borstel, who has battled
the flames with his son, said
by phone. “As the fire gets
closer, you actually start to
feel threatened, and if it gets
too close, we realize we can’t
do it, (and) we get the hell out
of Dodge.”
Wheat farmers like always
have water tanks loaded on
the back of trucks during the
hot, dry summers. When a fire
breaks out, they race to the
scene alongside professional
fire crews. If they have time,
the farmers mow down stand-
ing wheat to slow the fire’s
progress and come behind fire
trucks to tamp down flames
with their water.
But their most important
job is called “disking.” They
use a tractor attachment to
till the wheat into the soil,
creating a gap up to 150 feet
(46 meters) wide between the
advancing flames and the rest
of the field. That gives fire-
fighters a chance to get ahead
of the blaze.
“Without the help of the
farmers, this thing wouldn’t
get stopped,” von Borstel said.
“There are lots of us out there.
We look out for each other.”
Von Borstel’s crops so far
are untouched, but his cousin
lost over a square mile on
Wednesday with the fire just a
few miles from his home.
The blaze about 85 miles
east of Portland has scorched
nearly 80 square miles of
wheat fields and grasslands
since igniting Tuesday.
There has been
tens of thousands of
acres of cropland lost.
— Logan Padget
“There has been tens of
thousands of acres of cropland
lost,” said Logan Padget, a
fifth-generation wheat farmer
who was battling the flames
Thursday.
“I’ve heard that some peo-
ple have lost literally every-
thing ... You’ve got two years
worth of effort that’s coming
down to a two-week harvest,
and all your time and care and
effort for the land is wasted.”
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