Joe Kline / file photoThe crowd watches a performance in 2013 during the Airshow of the Cascades at the Madras Airport. Aerial performances during Saturday's air show in Madras were canceled because firefighters who were there as a safety precaution were called to fight the Cove Fire near Culver.

A blaze that scorched 280 acres near Culver and destroyed two vacant homes effectively grounded the annual Airshow of the Cascades in Madras on Saturday, when firefighters assigned to the show were pulled away to fight the Cove Fire.

Mack Gardner, chairman of the show, said Tuesday that FAA regulations prevented performing pilots from flying without a firefighting presence at the airport. He said it was the first time in the air show’s 16-year history that performances had been canceled.

Gardener said the show set an attendance record Friday night and was headed for a similarly strong day by Saturday morning. Because of gusty winds, organizers were looking at canceling or changing some performances involving gliders and skydivers, he said, but conditions didn’t look likely to keep most planes out of the sky.

By late morning, a plume of smoke rising from the Culver area was visible from the Madras Airport. Around 12:30 p.m., just about an hour before aerial performances were scheduled to begin, Jefferson County Fire District 1 was called to help with the Cove Fire, Gardner said, and air show organizers were forced to alter their plans.

Gary Miller, a member of the air show committee, said the improvised afternoon of entertainment went over well with spectators who’d come to the airport expecting to see planes flying.

Participants in the classic car show held alongside the air show were invited to drive up and down the taxiway, he said, a drill team performed multiple times, and Will Allen, a pilot who performs aerial acrobatics while singing to spectators on the ground, sat in with a big band playing at the Erickson Aircraft Collection museum hangar.

Miller said although crashes and other emergencies at air shows are rare, he supported the decision to ground the pilots when fire crews were pulled away. Organizers had an extended pyrotechnics show planned for Saturday afternoon, he said, including the “wall of fire” on the west side of the main runway, and it would have been unsafe to proceed without fire crews at the ready.

“You’re not blowing off 65 pounds of fireworks and 400 gallons of gasoline in 60 seconds without having a lot of fire crews standing around,” he said.

Gardner agreed.

“As soon as you lose fire and crash rescue, you’ve lost any kind of safety valve you had, and the air show ends,” he said. “There’s no more tumbling aircraft acts, you can’t do that anymore.”

Gardner said he and others involved in the show were surprised the audience didn’t head for the exits upon learning no planes would be flying Saturday, the second and final day of the show. Around 4,000 people were still at the airport at 4 p.m., he said, when the aerial portion of the day was scheduled to conclude.

“From our perspective, we kind of went from being an air show to an airport festival,” Gardner said.

Gardner said organizers are already looking at ways to have backup fire protection in place should a similar situation arise in the future. Saturday afternoon, they learned of a group of firefighters from the Portland area who have been regular air show attendees in recent years, and are looking at the possibility of inviting them to Madras before next year’s air show for aircraft-specific firefighting training.

Miller said the cancellations of Saturday’s performances can be chalked up to the unfortunate timing of the Culver fire.

“All the performers were ready, let’s do the show,” Miller said. “If it had happened two hours earlier, maybe we could have put together a secondary plan, if it happened two hours later, we would have been halfway done. It just hit us right at showtime.”

— Reporter: 541-383-0387, shammers@bendbulletin.com