Alerts issued, evacuations performed with vastly improved coordination

By Morgan Rothborne, Ashland.news 

First responders from throughout the Rogue Valley converged on the southbound onramp at Exit 11 of Interstate 5 south of Ashland Wednesday afternoon when a fast-growing grass fire prompted evacuation of nearby residents before being contained within a couple of hours. 

Containment was achieved within two and a half hours of evacuation. The alert notices were rapidly sent to Ashland residents via the Everbridge alert system in a coordinated effort that prompted a note of optimism from first responders as the four-year anniversary of the Almeda Fire approaches. 

A transportation system employee stated they were traveling down Interstate 5 and called 911 when they saw a small fire start in the nearby grass. The employee said they could not be named due to company policy but could confirm the fire started small and grew quickly. 

“By the time they got to it, it had just taken off,” they said. 

Interim Chief of Fire District 5 Aaron Bustard said the initial call for the fire came in from dispatch as a first alarm fire at 1:55 p.m. Units were on scene by 2:03 p.m. and sized up the fire as already a half to a full acre. It had also grown from a grass fire to something working its way into nearby trees and power lines.

Firefighters worked quickly to create a “scratch line,” or a hand dug dirt line around the fire to prevent its spread, followed by a wet line with additional air support in the form of helicopters from the Oregon Department of Forestry (ODF), he said. Work on the fire will continue into the night and evening to maintain containment and prevent flare ups. 

“If you go out to that fire tomorrow, you’ll see what looks like a dozer line or a trail around it. … We basically want a big line between what we call ‘the black,’ or where the fire has burned and the fuel,” he said. 

The fire was rapidly upgraded to a second alarm fire prompting the response of nearly every first responder in the Rogue Valley. 

By 3 p.m., units from Ashland Fire & Rescue, Oregon Department of Forestry, Rural Metro Fire, Rogue River Fire, Greensprings Fire, Central Point Police, Jackson County Sheriff’s Office, Oregon Department of Transportation, Ashland Electric Department, Ashland Police and Jacksonville Fire were visible in the area around the evacuation zone. 

Only two structures were lost. Both were outbuildings “kind of in the brush and the woods,” he said. Neither appeared to be inhabited but were likely storage buildings. Residents in the evacuation area had “done a good job” with defensible space such as fuel management and green spaces around their homes, making the fire fight easier and potentially helping save structures, he said. 

The fire reminded Bustard of the Siskiyou Fire around a decade ago burning in the nearby, equally high risk area of Tolman Creek, and had first responders a little on edge — even more so as the fire came so close to the Sept. 8 anniversary of the Almeda Fire, another fire Bustard helped fight. 

But departments have learned from these incidents, especially the Almeda Fire. 

“It really highlighted the way we needed to change a lot of things and work together more,” he said. 

Last year, Bustard said he met with Ashland Fire & Rescue Deputy Chief Marshall Rasor to work out a “mutual threat zones” agreement. The agreement amplified previous mutual aid agreements by establishing that any fire starts within either department’s zone would prompt an immediate aid response from either department. 

While many officers from Ashland Police, the Jackson County Sheriff’s Department and Central Point Police among others assisted with the evacuation effort and traffic control, Bustard said the police presence did not lead to an arrest as was seen with the most recent fire near Interstate 5 at Exit 14. 

Emergency Manager Kelly Burns said he was about to enter a meeting in city hall when he received information about the fire. He left the meeting to monitor the situation, knowing the areas near the fire were under the authority of Jackson County Emergency Managers and the Jackson County Sheriff’s office, but authorities from those agencies were working on a different situation in a remote part of Shady Cove. 

The first Everbridge alert was sent at 2:18 p.m., with areas near Windemar, Timberlake and Clayton road all put on a Level 2 (Be Set) Evacuation order. By 2:26 p.m., the evacuation order was upgraded to Level 3 (Go Now!). 

The evacuation orders came from the cautious judgment of responders on scene, and “it’s better to be cautious,” Burns said. 

Responders notified dispatch they believed the conditions of the fire merited a Level 2 evacuation order and, though the areas concerned were not within Ashland or technically his authority, Burns issued it because, “fire doesn’t know borders.” 

Within 10 minutes of the first evacuation order, Ashland Fire & Rescue Chief Ralph Sartain arrived on scene and requested an immediate upgrade to a Level 3 order. Sartain feared the fire would be pushed into Ashland by the wind and grow quickly in hot fuel, Burns said. 

After the second message, Burns was told to cede communication authority to Jackson County and did so. After receiving “feedback,” from Ashland residents of a desire for more information, Burns issued the third message stating the fire posed no threat to the city. 

“We all have a mutual trauma here, especially if you were in the area during Almeda. People would rather have a message even if it’s spelled wrong,” he said. 

Near the intersection of Crowson Road and Siskiyou Boulevard at 3:40 p.m, nearby residents gathered on the roadsides watching first responders from Ashland Police and the Jackson County Sheriff’s Department redirecting traffic and preventing vehicles from going into the evacuation area. Some standing nearby declined to be interviewed but confirmed they had friends and neighbors up the road concerned about horses on properties closed off by police. 

A helicopter could be heard overhead as one of the residents outside, Jase Sellars, stood with his neighbors. Some were heard shouting to each other and running to jump in friend’s trucks with hitched horse trailers in an effort to help one another. 

Residents of this area saw this kind of activity before when a fire reached close to the Siskiyou Village Mobile Home Park in 2012, he said. But the strong and fast reaction from locals and first responders alike was the heritage of the Almeda Fire. 

“We’re all out here because of what happened in 2020,” Sellars said. 

Burns echoed Bustard’s tone of appreciation for the ways the Almeda Fire changed emergency response. In this first evacuation order issued from his office, agreements and coordination between the city and Ashland School District and Southern Oregon University functioned well, he said. Bellview School was let out early and buses took students home while SOU and ASD mirrored and helped proliferate information. 

Evacuation messaging and managing the flow of information is the work of emergency management, but evacuation on the ground is always the role of law enforcement. Law enforcement agencies around the valley now have mutual aid agreements akin to those used by fire departments. 

“We didn’t have a quick coordinated response like this during Almeda,” Burns said. 

Burns stated residents of Ashland will have to continue learning their residential evacuation zone and those of areas they frequent to ensure that, when evacuation orders are issued, residents can quickly respond. 

Bustard urged residents to resist the urge to evacuate their homes but park on the streets nearby while waiting for the order to return home. First responder vehicles need to be able to get in and incidents such as Paradise have shown fires can change direction quickly and eat ground just as quickly. 

It can be tempting for the public to begin to sigh relief in September as the approach of fall is obvious and it feels like fire season is ending, he said. But the heat and the wind will continue a little while longer. Vigilance and preparation for fire has to continue, he said.

In a final release of information available at 7:20 p.m. on the app Watch Duty, the fire was GPS mapped at 13 acres and was 100% lined. The cause of the fire is under investigation, according to a post on the ODF Facebook page. 

Sign up for Everbridge alerts and receive evacuation notices online. 

Email Ashland.news reporter Morgan Rothborne at morganr@ashland.news.

Original story

Firefighters stop forward progress of wildfire south of Ashland

Ashland.news staff report

One lane of southbound Interstate 5 south of Ashland has reopened and the evacuation order for residents west of the Exit 11 on-ramp has been reduced to the “be set” (level 2) after a brush fire reported just before 2 p.m. today was corralled by firefighters after blackening less than 10 acres.

Firefighters stopped forward progress of the fire at about 3 p.m., according to the Watch Duty app, which put the fire’s size at 6.5 acres. There’s no threat to city of Ashland, authorities added.

Firefighters had the fire 90% wet-lined with water and were keeping it in check with helicopter water bucket drops, according to an Oregon Department of Forestry post just after 3 p.m. Crews ordered for a night shift tonight will be dedicated to mop-up operations.

Email Ashland.news at news@ashland.news.