A forest fire approaching Rim Village in Crater Lake National Park prompted park officials to warn visitors at Rim Village that they might have to leave the area/NPS
Visitors at Rim Village in Crater Lake National Park in Oregon were told to be ready to leave the area if the Spruce Lake Fire continues to move towards the rim.
"Current or projected threats from the approaching fire indicate that there may be a need to evacuate in the future," a release said. "Mazama Village and other areas in the park are not affected" by this notice.
The Spruce Lake fire was touched off by a lightning strike on July 24. Since then it has grown to approximately 5,000 acres; it was just 5 percent contained as of Saturday night. The fire has forced partial closure of the West Rim Road, from the Munson Valley Road to North Junction; a section of the Pacific Crest Trail, and; several other trails on the west side of the park.
A bit more than 300 firefighters were battling the flames, and they were being hampered by low humidity levels and the chance of thunderstorms over the next few days.
Comments
The real fire hazard are hot embers blown a mile ahead of the fire frontlighting on the many flammable dry wood shingled roofs mandated by a fire-foolish cadre of NPS Historians who have no background in
understanding critical fire behavior threats to structures roofed with dry kindling. This hazard includes the rebuilt Crater Lake Lodge now open 22 years after the 1995 reopening. The first few weeks during the Lodge reopening, guests enjoyed a real lodgepole log fire in the Great Hall Fireplace. Soon thereafter, the Grand Fireplace was refitted with a disappointing propane fire hardly historic; but this change was a decision to protect the Lodge wood shingled roof from Fireplace hot embers (even though thre Historic Lodge never had this issue fortunately during the approximate 80 years of operation. The propane fire combustion is so poor that a thick layer of soot coats the Fireplace stones and during windy downdrafts, guests seated near the Fireplace are treated to the soot particles insult coating their clothes, coffee or fine merlot drinks !
NPS needs to formulate an Historic Structure Roof Policy utilizing brown steel roofs which resemble historic wood shingles. Steel roofs shed ice and snow easily as demonstrated in several Sleepy Hollow residential structures with wood shingled roofs following construction which were damaged repeatedly by heavy ice and snow loads. Steel roofs are far less expensive to maintain. All Historians understand the terrible losses from fire of many early historic structures. The Historic Watchman Fire Lookout with a wood shingled roof lies directly in the path of the current Spruce Lake Fire and the earlier National Creek Complex, 2015 Fires.
https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/4463/
Fortunately, m13, there are wood shake shingles now manufactured that installed properly meet the Class A standards. In this case, we can have our cake and eat it too.
Crater Lake National Park Notifies Visitors and Residents to "Be Ready" for Potential Evacuation of Rim Village and Park Headquarters
http://www.publicnow.com/view/FC3AB3BF875C782BC9E7AC0BBA67B774D82E9255