Ashland Fire & Rescue has warned of more intense fire seasons in years to come as local impacts of climate change become more apparent. Division Chief Chris Chambers told the City Council Tuesday, Aug. 2, that coming fire seasons could see an increase in acres burned of between 200 and 400 percent.
After thunderstorms dropped up to 3 inches of rain on the east side of the McKinney Fire on Tuesday, the size of the fire grew only incrementally to 58,668 as of Thursday, up from 56,459 on Tuesday, according to Klamath National Forest reports. There were 2,219 firefighters working on stopping the fire’s spread. Containment was reported at 10%.
Firefighters stopped spread of a grass fire late Wednesday night in Lithia Park believed to have started due to a cooking fire. The fire burned approximately one-half acre of grass and brush between Ashland Creek and East Pioneer Street above.
Ashland fire fighters don’t need flames to train for major wildfire events, as they showed during a Tuesday morning training at city-owned property on Oak Street, even as a major wildfire just over the state border was found to have claimed two more lives. Authorities said that fire does not pose any danger to Ashland.
Some Pacific Crest Trail hikers and other McKinney Fire evacuees are finding shelter in Ashland. Two fire victims were discovered Sunday morning, the Siskiyou County Sheriff’s Office announced Monday.
Wildfire smoke from the McKinney Fire west of Yreka on Sunday prompted the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality to issue an air quality alert for Jackson and Klamath counties Sunday, with the alert period expected to last at least through Friday. After exploding Friday night and Saturday morning to more than 30,000 acres burned, the McKinney Fire grew to 51,468 acres blackened as of 7:30 p.m. Sunday.
Possible lightning storms Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon through Monday morning has prompted the National Weather Service to issue a Red Flag Warning for large areas of Southern Oregon and Northern California, even as a fire first reported Friday afternoon near the Klamath River northwest of Yreka exploded overnight to an area of more than 18,000 acres, sending a plume of smoke over the region.
A grass fire burning just south of Exit 14 was brought under control Monday afternoon by firefighters from Ashland Fire & Rescue and the Oregon Department of Forestry, who held the fire to just under one acre. Crews responded to a 911 call at 4:23 p.m. reporting a fire in the vicinity of Washington Street and East Jefferson Avenue, just west of Interstate 5.
Reports of aggressive behavior by deer in Ashland and other areas of Jackson and Josephine counties are on the rise, according to the Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife (ODFW). Ashland problem areas are reported between North Mountain Avenue and Oak Street north of Siskiyou Boulevard, and the area immediately surrounding Southern Oregon University.
Multiple fire agencies responded to a fire reported at about 1 p.m. Wednesday, July 20, on a hillside west of Highway 99 between Ashand and Talent. Within about a half-hour the wildfire’s spread was held to about a half-acre off Frank Hill Road just west of Jackson Wellsprings.
Don Bieghler, beloved Ashland City Band Director for 25 years, leads his last performance this Thursday night in Lithia Park. He’s been with the band for a total of 60 years.
Southern Oregon University President Rick Bailey presented SOU’s highest honor on Monday in Guanajuato to two prominent supporters of the university exchange program between SOU and the University of Guanajuato. An SOU delegation and about 200 guests representing wide segments of the Guanajuato community looked on as the awards were presented to Juan Carlos Romero Hicks, holder of two master’s degrees earned at SOU before he embarked on a distinguished political career in Mexico, and his wife, Francis “Faffie” Romero Siekman, a prime mover behind a scholarship program supporting student exchanges.
Ashland Fire & Rescue has warned of more intense fire seasons in years to come as local impacts of climate change become more apparent. Division Chief Chris Chambers told the City Council Tuesday, Aug. 2, that coming fire seasons could see an increase in acres burned of between 200 and 400 percent.
Birds’-Eye View: Ashland-based nonprofit Klamath Bird Observatory keeps on eye on bird life in the Klamath-Siskiyou Bioregion of southern Oregon and northern California. Since birds are a key indicator species and migratory paths from much of the Western Hemisphere pass through this area, KBO data helps inform natural resource management on a broad scale.
The 77th anniversary of the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima, Japan, was marked in Ashland for the 38th year on Saturday. A capacity crowd gathered at Thalden Pavilion, site of an eternal World Peace Flame, to hear remarks and celebrate the planting of a gingko tree sprouted from seeds from a tree that survived the Hiroshima inferno.
Alan Journet: “Today’s Republicans have jettisoned the traditional conservative adherence to democratic principles and have committed themselves to thwarting the will of the voters if they don’t like it.”
(It’s free)
