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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Oregon Firefighters Battle Grass Fires

Associated Press

Forecasts of dry lightning in Eastern Oregon worried firefighters battling a series of grass fires Tuesday, while planes and helicopters dumped water and retardant on a 300-acre forest fire in central Oregon.

About 220 firefighters, aided by two air tankers and four water-dumping helicopters, fought a blaze inside the Mount Jefferson Wilderness area, said Carol Connolly, spokeswoman for the Central Oregon Interagency Dispatch Center in Prineville.

“Right now, safety is the No. 1 priority for the team,” she said. “Part of the safety concern is the fuel bed. It’s very dense, it’s heavy brush. … In some areas, the fuel is six feet deep on the ground.”

The fire was spotted from the air Monday afternoon. It was burning in steep terrain about three miles up the Jefferson Lake Trail. The trail was closed, as was the road to the trailhead.

In Eastern Oregon, 80 firefighters were battling a 1,700-acre grass fire started by lightning on federal lands in the remote high desert east of Jordan Valley.

Another 13 firefighters were fighting a 500-acre blaze in grass and sagebrush in an area even more remote southeast of Cedar Mountain, said Jonne Hower, spokeswoman for the Bureau of Land Management’s Vale District.

Smokejumpers also responded Tuesday to a report of a single tree on fire on the west side of Oxbow Reservoir and a 10-acre grass fire along Deer Creek west of Brownlee Reservoir, Hower said.