Quick action quells North Bank Fire

Upper McKenzie volunteers Jose Ramirez Solano, Luke Callahan, and Christoper Jones from the OR Dept. of Forestry were among the 19 firefighters who helped stop a blaze from spreading on North Bank Road in McKenzie Bridge. – Jenn Wickizer

Upper McKenzie volunteers- Shawn DuFault, Luke Callahan, and Jess Boykin – Jenn Wickizer

MCKENZIE BRIDGE: A reported house fire around 6:30 last Sunday afternoon was luckily limited to about 1/10 acre of vegetation between 2 residences.

“No structures were involved, but damage to a cedar fence between the houses was noted,” according to Dirk Rogers, Assistant Chief of the Upper McKenzie Rural Fire District. Besides forest vegetation, some piled branches and stacked logs cut to firewood length caught fire.

The Upper McKenzie RFPD and the Oregon Department of Forestry were the initial responders. Mutual aid came from McKenzie Fire & Rescue, the US Forest Service, and Lane Electric – for a total of 19 personnel.

In the middle of the brush fire, two general fire alarms and one smoke alarm were reported at the McKenzie Schools campus. McKenzie Fire crews that had been released from the North Bank fire investigated and traced the problem to a burned-out fan motor before any serious damage occurred.

Later that night, an 8 p.m report of reckless burning at the Paradise Campground was actually a campfire in a fire ring. At this time, there are no fire restrictions inside developed recreation sites.

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