Remote blazes pose challenge for firefighters
Mail Tribune
Medford, Oregon
July 16, 2001
Lightning strikes ignited 10 small fires in Crater Lake National Park recently, but the remoteness of some is making it difficult for crews to put them out.
“It’s a four-hour hike in and a four-hour hike out,” said Michelle Tanzi, incident commander for the U.S. Forest Service. “It takes eight hours of hiking to do four hours of work.”
Many of these fires, the largest of which was a quarter acre, have only been discovered in the past two days because of hazy conditions. “Some of these fires were so small they would kind of dissipate in the tree line,” she said.
Tanzi said six of the fires have been controlled or extinguished.
“We received some precipitation and the relative humidity has been in the 80-percent range,” she said.
Tanzi said the fires should all be out in the next day or so as Southern Oregon weather dries but turns cooler.
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