A fire map from the Watch Duty app shows some of the fires burning in the region Thursday.

Did you know that smoke can conduct electricity from powerlines to the ground and start wildfires?

It’s one of those facts we learn as we cover the wildfires dotting the landscape of Southern Oregon and Northern California.

The danger of smoke conducting electricity to the ground was one of the factors Pacific Power considered in its decision last weekend to cut off power to the transmission line that serves Crescent City, California, and much of Del Norte County. The powerline runs straight through the Kelly Fire — until a few days ago it ran between the Holiday and Kelly fires, but the blazes merged and crossed into Oregon early in the week.

Another factoid tossed out by the Rogue River Siskiyou-National Forest in an advisory about a lightning storm that peppered the region with more than 300 strikes last weekend: The Energy Release Component of local forests was at the 99th percentile prior to the storm.

“This component is the available energy in a fuel that will be released as it burns, which leads to more heat transferred to nearby fuels and results in greater rates of fire spread,” the Forest Service explained.

The component led Forest Service officials to say they expected more fire starts — and they were right. The forest saw 46 fires. The Oregon Department of Forestry Southwest District responded to another 13. Almost all of them were quickly doused. The Heppsie Fire near Lake Creek made it to 11 acres. The Palmer Peak Fire, 3.5 miles from McKee Bridge in the Applegate, was stopped at 4 acres. The Kanaka Fire in the Siskiyou Mountains above Applegate Lake was stopped at 30 acres.

The rest of the fires from last weekend’s lightning storm were quickly contained, some by smokejumpers leaping out of planes and tackling burning trees. Some were aided by helicopters and planes dropping load after load of water and retardant. Some required firefighters to hike into the forest and surround the flames.

On the Kanaka Fire, “the completion of handline around the … fire was a monumental achievement by all of those involved,” the Forest Service reported.

More than 500 personnel were involved in the initial attack, and more arrived in the days that followed.

The coordination required to send hundreds of firefighters and dozens of aircraft to dozens of fires popping up at the same time is phenomenal, especially when you think about the steep, rugged terrain where these fires start. 

Over in the Illinois Valley this week, Rogue Valley Times reporter Shaun Hall and Times photographer Jamie Lusch watched as fire crews set up a fire camp at Lake Selmac. The new base was created to battle the north end of the Smith River Complex, which closed Highway 199 — the primary road from the Rogue Valley to the coast — and led to the blackout in Crescent City. The crews are working to protect homes in the Illinois Valley after the fire spread into Oregon.

As of Thursday, the Smith River Complex had reached 52,564 acres with zero containment. It was being fought by 1,419 people, with more on the way, including two task forces from Marion and Polk counties.

All of those numbers — 500 personnel, 1,419 firefighters, two task forces, 300 lightning strikes, 59 fires — encompass hundreds of individual stories.

Gregory Nielsen, owner of the Almost Heaven Resort that is not far from the advancing Kelly Fire, has more than one story to tell.

“I lost damn near everything in the Slater Fire,” he said. “We’re not leaving. There’s four of us that live here who are not leaving for any reason.”

The 150,000-acre Slater Fire burned to the edge of the property in September 2020. Now, he’s got two large water tanks on his property, which should help if flames approach.

He also has a freshly created fireline around the edge of the property, courtesy of a bulldozer.

“I can’t thank these guys enough,” Nielsen said Tuesday. “They made a huge firebreak.”

On Thursday night, a few hours after Shaun and Jamie left Almost Heaven, winds kicked up, a thunderstorm moved in, and the Josephine County Sheriff’s Office raised the evacuation level around Almost Heaven to Level 3 – Go Now!

We’re hoping Nielsen and company dodge the flames again so they can keep telling stories.

— David Smigelski, Rogue Valley Times editor