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About The Record-courier. (Haines, Baker County, Oregon) 1932-2016 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 17, 2015)
5*1 ***‘**«**** ec RLOT 0073A**C007 BAKER COUNTY LIBRARY 2400 RESORT ST BAKER CITY OR 97814-2721 Beautiful Weather Returns Exp 05/07/2016 Twin Mountain from Bulger Lane west of Haines. Photo taken Thursday of last week by Gina Perkins ■M www.therconline.com Positively Baker County t Thureday^September 17,2015^ Vo,ume 114. Number Est. Haines 1901 ~ Haines, Baker County, Oregon Nellie Langlitz Turning 105 Defensible Spa<Mnou Saved Homes in Windy Ridge-Cornet Fire By Gina Perkins "We'd like to have 30 feet of defensible space around your buildings, but we'll take 10," said Dan Weitz, Baker Rural Fire Chief. Green, irrigated areas, mowed grass, rock, metal roofs with closed eves and closed decks so that fire cannot get underneath and start a fire, were a few examples given during his presentation to the Mutual Improvement Club Wednesday, Sept. 9 at the home of Viola Perkins in Haines. Limbing trees up five or six feet is also pru dent as is choosing the right shrubbery. Low juniper and arborvitae are not good choices to have right up next to your home, or even underneath a tree, as they can become the ladder fuel necessary to spread the fire quickly. Friends and loved ones of Nellie Langlitz are invited to a special Birthday Open House oh Saturday, Sept. 26Trom 2-5 p.m. at the Missouri Flat Grange in honor of her 105th birthday. No presents, but your attendance and well wishes are greatly welcome according to her family. Langlitz and her husband were long time cattle and sheep ranchers and she served 40-plus years in the Baker County Posse and over 25 years as direc tor of the Blue Mountain Old Time Fiddler's. She cur rently resides at Meadowbrook Place and credits her long life to not drinking, not smoking, and a lot of hard work. Van Cleave’s Celebrate 70th Anniversary Jim and Ines Van Cleave celebrated their 70th Wedding Anniversary on Sept. 10. Congratulations! ■■ Unfortunately, we've still got a lot of fire season left. With the risky fire'conditions, now isn't ' the time to be mowing dry tall grass or using other mechanical means as it could cause anotherfire.” - Dan Weitz, Baker Rural Fire Chief "Eliminating ladder fuels is the key," ex plained Weitz who began speaking to the group about Cohesive Fire Management. "It [Cohesive Management] allows us to re spond out of district. Often, we get calls to protect unprotected lands. As long as we are requested, we will go," explained Weitz. Much of the area in the Windy Ridge portion of the fire is unprotected. Baker Rural Fire was among many departments which re sponded there. Grant dollars have allowed the local fire dis tricts to become well equipped and well trained. He stated Baker Rural Fire has an excellent working relationship with all of the other departments and agencies, including Wallowa Whitman National Forest; two cur rent and one retired USFS employees serve as volunteers on Baker Rural. Noel Liv ingston, Trevor Lewis, and Dick Johnson pro vide their expertise and help train the volunteers. Johnson has over 50 years expe rience and served as an fire Incident Com mander, according to Weitz. Having the expertise of these fire profes sionals is a tremendous benefit to everyone within the department and the residents they serve. While the training is shared among the volunteers, it remains the job of Chief Weitz (and of the other chiefs) to make certain vol unteers receive appropriate fire assignments and remain safe as not all have the same ex posure, experience, or level of training. In ad dition to fire exercises, the volunteers have the opportunity to receive Oregon Regional Hazmat and EMT training, the latter of which is provided by Saint Alphonsus. "Human life is always the first priority," em phasized Weitz. "People's homes and prop erty is important, but never as important as human life. Everything else is replaceable or will grow back, discipline, fire training, and and following a plan are essential to keeping people safe." The training and equipment was put to the test during the recent Windy Ridge - Cornet fires. Weitz provided some behind the scenes information about what the circum stances were that firefighters faced. Stices Gulch was extremely dangerous. He said two homes were lost there out of the 22. Several outbuildings were destroyed, however. Old dynamite and blasting caps were discovered in one shed and while an attempt was made to remove all of the caps, not all were, and the shed exploded. No one was injured, for tunately. With only one way in and one way out, fire fighters had to be especially observant and cautious while trying to protect the homes in Stices Gulch. Weitz was worried the fire, which was initially in the crown of the trees, would potentially travel down to the bottom of the canyon, causing spot fires on the ground. See DEFENSIBLE SPACE on page 3 Photo by Dan Weitz This rubble is an example of a structure which did not survive the fire in Stices Gulch. Old dynamite and blasting caps had been stored together in a shed resulting in an explosion. Photo by Dan Weitz (At left) This plastic greenhouse survived the intense heat and the fire because it had defensi ble space. Note the fire burned right down to the green area. At far left, this thermometer was on the side of a building In the fire. It stopped measuring at 102 degrees before It melted. It no doubt got much hotter than that.
