2A Wednesday, December 20, 2017 Appeal Tribune
Fire
Continued from Page 1A
uThe Forest Service
attacked the fire when it
was small and confined to
the Mount Jefferson Wil-
derness, but also faced de-
lay and a crucial day with-
out aircraft dropping wa-
ter.
uThe Forest Service
was aware of lightning
strikes in the area where
the Whitewater Fire start-
ed, but there's no evi-
dence they were monitor-
ing the fire before it was
reported July 23.
uThe Forest Service
didn't follow up on a po-
tentially important detail
about how the fire started.
They say it's a minor de-
tail and doesn't change
their opinion of the fire's
origin.
Birth of the
Whitewater Fire and
how it was attacked
On the evening of July
23, Lydia Segura was hik-
ing down Whitewater
Trail in the Mount Jeffer-
troit district ranger Gra-
dy McMahan decided not
to take action to fight the
fire that night.
"The helicopter had a
mechanical problem and
had to return to base,"
McMahan said. "Due to
distance, lateness of the
day, and snags, the fire-
fighters decided to return
in the morning."
July 24
Firefighters arrived at
the Whitewater Trailhead
at 8 a.m. and found smoke
drifting down the trail.
Because the fire was
within a wilderness area,
the use of mechanical
tools had to be approved.
Documents show chain-
saw and water pumps
were approved at 9:49
a.m.
The firefighting team
hiked up Whitewater Trail
to the blaze, which was
around one acre in size.
They cut down burning
trees and started building
a line around the fire, hop-
ing to starve it of fuel.
They used water from a
bladder bag and pumps.
But there was a prob-
lem: The water-dropping
helicopters and smoke-
jumpers requested to
son Wilderness, east of
Detroit, when she came
across smoke and flames.
It was around 5:30 p.m.
and the 17-year-old was
returning from a long
hike to Jefferson Park
during a day off from her
summer job at Big Lake
Campground.
"I hadn't seen anything
when I passed that spot in
the morning, but when I
hiked back, I could see a
lot of smoke just off the
trail," she said. "I walked
closer and could see
flames — every time the
wind picked I could really
see the flames blowing in
the treetops.”
Segura called 9-1-1 to
report the fire, which was
about 2 miles from the
Whitewater Trailhead and
50 to 100 yards off the
trail.
She also discovered a
small, one-person Kelty
tent and a pile of garbage
on the edge of the fire.
Around the same time
as Segura's call, a "small
blue column" of smoke
was reported from Coffin
Mountain Lookout.
A helicopter was dis-
patched to assess the fire,
documents show, but De-
help fight the fire never
materialized.
Then, fueled by winds,
the fire began spreading.
By 12:42 p.m., the fire
had grown to 12 to 15
acres. And records show
frustration among the
crew over whether heli-
copters were coming.
“Do we have an update
on ships?” said one mem-
ber of the team over radio
communications.
“With air support, the
folks on the ground think
we can catch it,” said an-
other communication.
By 3:30 p.m., the fire
had grown to an estimated
60 acres, according to ra-
dio communications.
“We asked for helicop-
ters with buckets to drop
water
and
smoke
jumpers,” McMahan said.
“Unfortunately,
there
were other fires breaking
that day across the region
and we were not seen as
high priority by the agen-
cy command in Portland
that assigns resources.”
That night, the fire
team slept at Whitewater
Trailhead.
The fire had already
started creeping into the
steep Whitewater Creek
drainage.
July 25
A new fire team took
command and headed to-
ward the fire with a crew
totaling 85 and five heli-
copters dropping water.
But even with water
drops from helicopters,
and pumps pulling water
out of Whitewater Creek,
the fire grew.
High winds sent out
blasts of embers, starting
15 to 20 spot fires by the
afternoon.
The
fire
pushed east along Senti-
nel Ridge and toward Jef-
ferson Park, still filled
with hikers and backpack-
ers.
The team attempted to
suppress the fire “while
going easy on the land,”
according to orders from
McMahan. One example:
helicopters weren’t al-
lowed drop fire retardant,
only water.
Retardant was not used
in the early stages of
fighting the fire, even
though some members of
the team requested its
use, according to radio
communications.
In general, Forest Ser-
vice policy "discourages
the application of fire-re-
Game
this. She smiled, leaned in
and said, ‘Actually, this is
our favorite game of the
year.’”
That surprised Zie-
semer. She said Gülich
told her there was nothing
like coming out of the
chute and seeing all the
kids dancing and singing
in the rafters.
That youthful energy
is buoyed by numbers.
This marked the sixth
Beavers Beyond the
Classroom game, each
drawing large crowds; at-
tendance in 2015 was
7,824, while last season's
crowd was crimped by in-
Continued from Page 1A
Students from the Silver Falls School District sit in the stands as they watch the game. SPECIAL TO
THE STATESMAN JOURNAL/MEGAN LIERMAN
(OSU senior center) Ma-
rie Gülich,” Victor Point
teacher Cindy Ziesemer
shared.
“After the game, Marie
Gülich came right up
through the band section
and started visiting with
students and signing auto-
graphs,” Ziesemer said. “I
thanked her on behalf of
our school, saying that on
our own we could never
pull off an experience like
Your friendly local dentist . . .
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tardant chemicals" in wil-
derness areas.
By day’s end, the fire
was 75 acres and four
trails had been closed.
July 26 - 31
One of the first maps
produced of the Whitewa-
ter Fire shows the chal-
lenge that firefighters
faced.
While they could cut a
hand line around the fire’s
northern perimeter, near
the Whitewater Trail, the
southern side was on
steep cliffs dropping into
Whitewater Creek.
The fire had "slopped
over the ridge" on the first
day of firefighting, but by
July 26, it began spread-
ing downhill fast, with
flaming trees and boul-
ders careening into the
valley.
A hotshot team as-
sessed the situation to de-
termine whether the fire
could be stopped on the
downhill side.
“A lot of discussion
took place and two (hot-
shot crews) turned down
the mission to go direct on
the south end where it
dives off the rim into the
See FIRE, Page 3A
clement weather but still
tallied 5,168.
Wednesday’s topped
both, drawing 8,280.
A year ago Scotts Mills
Elementary was among
those snowed out of the
experience. This year the
school was happy to add
its contingent to the ener-
getic mix.
“It’s a great opportuni-
ty to have our students
visit a college campus and
experience the excite-
ment of a college-level
basketball game,” Scotts
Mills Elementary School
Principal Kristin Jorgen-
son said.
“The OSU staff does a
great job of making it
very student friendly
with the music played and
activities during the time-
outs and halftime.
“It’s also really fun for
staff to enjoy such a fun
event with students —
cheering, dancing, and en-
joying the fun.”
Ziesemer was among
the staff element having a
“blast” on the day. And she
kept her ears tuned into
her students to gauge
their experiences.
Ziesemer shared a
number of her students’
thoughts she overheard,
including:
“That was the best first
college basketball game
I’ve ever seen!”
“It was the best basket-
ball game ever! They
even came up and signed
our posters…That made
our day!”
“We’ll never forget this
day.”
Rueck shared the sen-
timent.
Later in the day the
OSU coach tweeted: “A
huge THANK YOU to ev-
eryone who worked hard
to make today possible!
Today was so fun and the
3rd largest crowd in pro-
gram history!”
jmuch@Statesman-
Journal.com or cell 503-
508-8157 or follow at twit-
ter.com/justinmuch
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ST. MARY’S CHURCH
Pastor: Fr. Philip Waibel
575 E. College St. 503-845-2296
Weekday Mass 6:50 a.m.
Saturday Vigil Mass 5:30 p.m.
Sunday masses 7:30 a.m., 10 a.m.,
and 12:30 p.m. (Spanish Mass) at
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Mission at Crooked Finger
is at 10:00 a.m.
Confession: 3:30 - 5:00 p.m.
on Saturday
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Saturday Services
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1159 Oak Street 873-8568
Inviting All to a
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Silverton
Friends
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“loving God… loving others”
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Silverton Christian School
229 Eureka Ave. • 873-5131
silvertonfriends@frontier.com
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