Rattle Fire Update, Thursday, September 18, 2008
Incident: Rattle Wildland Fire
Released: 9/18/2008
Thursday, September 18, 2008 - 08:00 a.m.
- FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE -
FOR MORE INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:
Tom Lavagnino - Incident Information Officer (866) 534-9681
www.inciweb.org/incident/1510 rattlefire2008@gmail.com
Incident Command Post is located at the Toketee/Clearwater Airstrip
Idleyld Park, OR--Lower temperatures and higher humidity enabled hand crews and dozers on the Rattle Fire yesterday to safely continue to construct fire lines outside of the Wilderness. Two homes in the Slide Creek area along Highway 138, remain under a mandatory evacuation order but the fire has not progressed much further towards the structures and is still over one mile away.
Most of the Rattle Fire is within the Boulder Creek Wilderness, but small portions have left the wilderness boundaries near Illahee Rock, on the northwest corner of the fire. On the southeast perimeter near Slide Creek, crews continue to construct and hold existing containment lines to stop any further progress toward homes to the east. On both fire fronts helicopters have played a crucial role in cooling down hot spots and preventing the fire from completely burning large stands of trees. Some columns of smoke, or plumes, were visible yesterday, but they were not as large as the previous two days.
No structures have been lost from the Rattle Fire and no new injuries have been reported.
Additional forest roads have been closed on the Umpqua National Forest due to this fire. Forest visitors should check the forest website for a complete map of road closures before traveling near the fire area. Information on closures around the fire area can be found on the Umpqua National Forest website at www.fs.fed.us./r6/umpqua.
A four mile stretch of Highway 138 remains closed between Dry Creek and the Diamond Lake Ranger District at Toketee.
For further information on highway closures check the Oregon Department of Transportation website (www.trip check.com). To contact ODOT within Oregon, dial 511 or (800) 977-ODOT, or (503) 588-2941.
