Brush fire lights up forest land near Gales Creek

By Nicholas Bellos

The Forest Grove News-Times, Jul 22, 2009, Updated Oct 30, 2009

Aided by dry weather and windy conditions, a two-alarm brush fire outside Forest Grove raged for nearly an hour Monday before local firefighters could contain it.

The fires began when some old logging debris slash piles at 51293 S.W. Strohmayer Road reignited and spread to approximately one acre of logging debris around them. The fire was about 10 miles outside Forest Grove, by Gales Creek.

“The property owner had tried to burn much of the debris a couple weeks ago,” said David Nemeyer, spokesman for Forest Grove Fire & Rescue. Nemeyer said that the property owner had been clearing the property to plant a hazelnut orchard. Each of the debris piles was approximately 20 feet in diameter and 15 feet high.

“A pile that large can retain a lot of heat for a long time,” Nemeyer said. “A combination of a little wind and a lot of dry weather can do a lot.”

Firefighters received a call at 1:27 p.m., and issued the two-alarm response because of the dangerous conditions and heavy work involved with clearing the brush.

At one point, flames reached over 30 feet in the air.

Approximately 50 firefighters from western Washington County fire departments battled the flames until 4:30 p.m. to completely extinguish the fire. The firefighters were aided by the property owner, who used a tractor to break apart the burning debris.

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