How the Shevlin Fire stayed small

Published 12:55 am Tuesday, June 23, 2015

Joe Kline / The Bulletin Bob Madden, one of the first responders, looks from the high point of the Shevlin Fire to check his map of the fire perimeter Wednesday, almost a week after the blaze.

Gary Clark was on his deck overlooking Shevlin Park in the afternoon last week when he first saw the smoke.

A wildfire had started in the park, along Tumalo Creek, and soon he saw big flames lapping under the smoke. The fire burned within a quarter-mile of the home he shares with his wife.

“We were really concerned about it because you could see it,” Clark, 74, said Thursday. “It was not a pretty sight.” Clark, who has lived for 15 years on Stag Drive, said it is the closest a wildfire has come. “It was scary,” he said.

Count Clark among the people who were glad to see the Shevlin Fire stay small. An early 911 call, favorable grass conditions and hefty firefighter response combined to keep the Shevlin Fire to less than 10 acres, said Bob Madden, deputy chief of fire operations for the Bend Fire Department.

“This fire was close to town and caught very early,” said Madden, who was one of the first firefighters to respond June 11 to the Shevlin Fire. The fire burned about 7½ acres.

While the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office has announced that the Shevlin Fire was human caused, whether it was intentional or accidental remains under investigation. The sheriff’s office is working with Bend Fire, Oregon State Police and the Oregon Department of Forestry on the investigation, Rod Nichols, Department of Forestry spokesman, wrote in an email.

“The agencies have been interviewing potential witnesses and examining the fire scene for evidence,” he wrote.

Investigators did not find signs of a lightning strike, the primary natural cause for wildfire in Central Oregon, Madden said, so they determined it was human caused.

“They don’t have a feel for the (exact) cause yet,” he said.

Having a call come in about the fire before it took off helped give firefighters a jump on the blaze, Madden said.

“When the first 911 call came in, the lookouts couldn’t see it,” he said.

A Bend woman hiking in Shevlin Park reported the fire at 1:28 p.m., according to a Deschutes County 911 report. She said she saw a “small brush fire” with 4- to 5-foot flames, burning at the base of a tree. The fire had a diameter of about 8 feet.

The hiker told a 911 dispatcher that the fire was across Tumalo Creek from the hiking path, about halfway between Aspen Hall and the Tumalo Irrigation District diversion along the creek .

Madden, who is a regular runner at Shevlin Park and familiar with the area, parked at Aspen Hall and started hiking to find the fire — with more firefighters on the way from other directions. He found the fire about a quarter-mile north of the hall, and it was spreading fast.

While the northerly wind was not stiff, it was steady enough to push the fire’s spread up the steep east side of the creek canyon.

“The wind and the slope were in alignment,” Madden said.

The fire slowed as it crested the top of the canyon. Madden credited the condition of the grasses as a key contributor to the change in the fire’s behavior. The grasses were not as dry as they will be later in the year due to recent rains.

“Had that been in August, that would have been a different story,” Madden said.

Having the fire start when fire crews around Central Oregon were not busy fighting other fires helped keep its size down. Madden said firefighters from Bend Fire, the U.S. Forest Service and Oregon Department of Forestry all rushed to tackle the blaze.

“We had all the right resources in town,” he said.

At its height, about 80 firefighters and a bulldozer were on the fire, he said. A helicopter equipped with a water-drop bucket also helped quell the blaze. The helicopter made about 15 water drops, Madden said, burning through nearly a full tank of fuel. It pulled the water from a storage pond for Tumalo Irrigation District off Johnson Road. Earlier reports from Bend Fire gave a different water source on the day of the fire.

An air tanker flew over Bend, ready to help fight the fire, but Madden said it did not drop any retardant because of the success of the ground crews in corralling the blaze. Still the air tanker stayed close.

“We had that orbit the fire for about an hour,” Madden said.

While the fire burned near Clark’s home on Stag Drive, winds pushed it the opposite direction. His house did not go under an evacuation warning, but three subdivisions on the other side of the blaze did.

The Shevlin Fire started about 10 or 15 spot fires, small fires ahead of the main fire, including one on the south side of Shevlin Park Road, near two subdivisions. The helicopter snuffed out the spot fire on the far side of the road with its second drop of water, Madden said.

Shevlin Sand & Gravel and Taylor Northwest contributed a pair of water trucks each, he said, providing more water to fire engines at the fire.

Standing on the blackened slope in Shevlin Park on Wednesday, Madden — who has been with Bend Fire since 1980 — pointed out the woods burnt in the 6,908-acre Two Bulls Fire last June and the nearly treeless scar of the 3,350-acre Awbrey Hall Fire from August 1990. Those fires burned thousands of acres and the Awbrey Hall Fire destroyed 22 homes. The Shevlin Fire even burned over the spot where the Awbrey Hall Fire had started. Both of those fires were caused by people as well.

Clark had to evacuate last year during the Two Bulls Fire. Although much smaller, the Shevlin Fire was a worse experience because it was so much closer. The helicopter dripped water onto Clark’s deck with each pass.

“I’m just glad it’s over with and I hope it never happens again,” he said.

— Reporter: 541-617-7812,

ddarling@bendbulletin.com

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