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From the beginning of 2012, few areas of the country escaped some level of drought. Most
experienced worsening conditions with portions of at least 34 states in severe to exceptional drought.
The Barry Point Fire began on the Fremont Winema National Forest, 22 miles southwest
of Lakeview in southcentral Oregon. A lightning storm August 5th, that had produced over 2000
strikes, resulted in 18 new starts that were all caught on initial attack. One additional
strike, a holdover, became the Barry Point Fire, first reported August 6th at 4:26 in
the afternoon.A prolonged hot summer dried fuels to critical levels and ERC values continued
to hover between the 90th and 97th percentile. These conditions, combined with continuous,
heavy fuels, single digit RH's, low fuel moistures, and high haines, increased the
probability of a difficult to contain fire. Longtime local and Fremont Winema Deputy Fire
Staff, Barry Shullenberger, says this fire was not typical of most fires in Klamath and
Lake counties. "Most of our fires burn to the north, and they burn clockwise. Um,
this particular fire though, uh, uh, once it burned, uh, to the east, it turned and
went south. And, uh, we had some huge fire runs, both during the day and the night. Um,
the other thing real typical of fires in our area is that they're normally about three
day events. And, uh, you know we're talking about that less than two percent of fires
that go longer than that. And, so, when this fire, uh, was making runs at night, and making
runs during the day, it made for a pretty extreme fire situation that didn't give
us the opportunity to catch the fire at really any phase of the, of the operation." Given
these conditions, along with the proximity of private lands and high competition for
fire resources regionally and nationally, utilizing the fire for resource benefit was
never considered as an option.Schullenberger says everything possible was done to stop
the fire."Great effort put in by everybody. Um, we were able to anchor, anchor, uh, towards
where it originated and then work the flanks on the two sides. But we were never able to
get out in front of this fire and ahead, because it, the fire kept wanting to spot and the
fuels were so dry and there was so much of them. Um, almost every ember that went out
there was igniting. You know, nine out of ten embers were, were uh, starting a fire
source, so, um, tremendous, uh, uh fire, um, show there as far as, uh, trying to get
out around it and, and safely implement people in a spot where they weren't gonna get trapped
by fire." A local Type 3 team was called, taking the fire on August 7th, the second
day of the fire, at 6:30 pm. The fire burned onto private land the same day, a concern
for Oregon Department of Forestry. District Forester Greg Pittman, says the initial delegation
reflected the ODF mission."We work for the private land owner, they're the ones that
pay us to protect their land. Uh, and then we take that, that obligation very seriously,
so that was our concern to do what we could to minimize the impact to private lands." As
weather and fuels pushed the fire northeast to 2,000 acres, Deputy Forest Supervisor Rick
Newton, says the decision to move from a Type 3 Team to Type 2 was not difficult."I mean,
the capacity of the Type 3 team, to handle all of the complexity that was there, um,
operational complexity primarily was on our, on our mind. We, we were outgunned. We needed
more capacity moving to a Type 2 Team at that point was, there was universal agreement
and there was a pretty quick, quick decision." On August 9th, an Oregon Type 2 Team took
command. That day, the fire spread east to 7,500 acres and evacuations at Dog Lake Campground
and south of Drew's Reservoir began. August 10th brought a red flag warning and the fire
grew to 12,700 acres. The initial objectives set by the Type 2 Team and the Forest in WFDSS
were obsolete almost as soon as they were created due to extreme fire behavior and fast
spread. Fairly rapidly, agency administrators grew concerned about the Type 2 Team's ability
to plan far enough ahead with such a fast moving fire. A 7 member NIMO team was ordered
to provide greater overhead capability for the increasing complexity of the fire and
to provide operational support to the Type 2 Team. "What we had happening here was
operationally we had, we had a Type 2 Team that was totally functional, but operationally
they were being inundated, and, and I was trying to see, figure out how we could, what
would be the most rapid way to get some, um, operational capacity. And at that time we
were still only looking at four, probably 4,000 acres on this fire and it had come up over Dog Mountain.
And we were seeing some very unique fire behavior. Without wind we were seeing just, um, literally
fuel driven fire that was, um, we needed a, a, a surge in our operational capacity." On August
11th, extreme fire behavior caused it to double in size, growing to 23,048 acres and pushing
toward California. Homes in the community of Westside were threatened as well as active
timber sales and private timber lands. NIMO assumed command of the fire August 12th at
6:00 pm. On August 13th, the fire grew to 30,987 acres and on the 14th to 48,000. Each
new day brought threats to new communities and resulted in evacuations. Finally, the
need for significantly enhanced operations capability, and the lack of ability to fill
those orders nationally, resulted in an order for a full Type 1 Team and its beefed up operations
section."We were trying to find the right matched where we knew we had enough capacity
to have operational control on all flanks of the fire, where we had, um, the supervision
and the ability to get out in front of the fire. And, we struggled with that for a long
part of the first few several days of the fire. And, uh, we had to keep reevaluatin,
reevaluatin, and finally, uh, we, we made that decision that, that when the, the fire
reached the, the California border and we were just really getting extended, um, we made
that choice to go to Type 1 Incident management organization ." Command was transferred
from NIMO to a Type 1 team on August 15th. The fire was now 78,758 acres. On the 17th,
it grew to 84,160, moving to the south.On August 18th and 19th, along with light precip,
the fire reached ground more suitable for dozer use and lighter fuels which helped firefighters
make progress and limited spread. By August 25th, most of the fire was in mop up and the
decision was made to transition from the Type 1 team back to the local Type 3 team. With
700 people and 93,000 acres of fire remaining, this was a concern for Modoc Forest Supervisor
Kimberly Anderson, who said she had to ask herself if she could live with the decision
if something went wrong. "If something had gone wrong, could I have
answered the question to the regional foresters, or to parents on, um, 'Did you have the
best people on that fire? Did you have your top skills group there? Did you
do everything you could, knowing how big this was, and how many people you had on it?
Could you, did you do everything you could do? And I could never get around to be
enabled to say yes on that." The fire reached 100% containment August 27th
and was turned back to the forest September 7th.