[/caption]Carol Forsloff - Texas and much of the Southwest remain under alert of fires from blazing heat and dry conditions caused by a prolonged drought, but the history of fires in other places reminds folks to have the hope that history gives in disasters just like these.
The fires that have stretched across Texas are now crossing the border into Louisiana and places where people have not ordinarily anticipated fires of any magnitude. But the bone-dry conditions and drought have created a situation where experts have to educate the least fire-prone communities about how fires can start and what they need to do to protect their communities.
The Oregon Tillamook burn is historically marked so folks remember the terrible fires that occurred beginning in 1933, covering thousands of acres of land and foliage and lumber in the area on the way to Oregon’s coast. It was a time Oregonians know about from their history when they hear about widespread fire. It is the kind of disaster that becomes the fodder for legends, as happened after the Oregon burn when the human behavior was said to be the reason for the burn, the kind that local folks would never forget.
The worst fire occurred in 1933, but there were other burns to follow. The first and worst of the series of fires took down nearly 240,000 acres of prime forest land and 12 billion board feet of timber. That’s enough lumber to build more than a million five-room houses, according to historical accounts of the fire’s results.
1939 and 1945 saw more fires in the area, but these only involved one-tenth the amount of timber as the 193 fire. In 1951 another fire destroyed 32,000 acres and 15 million board feet of logs and snags.
As time went on, the legends grew about these great fires, the kind of legends that often happen after disastrous events. In 78 years since the big fire of 1933, the stories have multiplied as the restoration of the forest has taken place. These stories have become so uniquely embellished, that investigative articles have been written to separate the facts from fiction.
One of the stories has to do with the status of the forest at the time of the original fire, that people refer to as affecting the largest virgin forest in the State of Oregon. It was said to have been spread by human error, but research reveals that in fact much of what happened was due to naturally occurring circumstance.
It is true that the Native Americans historically had used fire to manage undergrowth and mask their settlements on the Coast. But research shows their behaviors had negligible impact on the area when it comes to the issues creating larger, more widespread fires. Still this is evidence the forest wasn’t as “virgin” as the legends indicate. Furthermore loggers knew of fires set by hunters for light and heat in the region during later years.
What researchers have found is that while the 1933 Tillamook Fire originated from a spark caused by the friction of one log dragged over another, thus initiated by human behavior, the spread of the fire came from natural causes.
The Tillamook burn began on August 13, 1933. Temperatures ranged from 90 to 97 degrees and humidity was low. That low humidity and winds increasing in stength caused the fire to spread. Temperatures continued to rise along with the winds over several days. The perfect conditions for fire to manifest then move over a wide expanse of area came from the hottest weather on record that time, that increased to 107 degrees accompanied by strong winds along and relatively low humidity. A review of the conditions over the previous several years showed dry conditions occurred over much of that period of time.
A combination of heavy salvage logging, and the problems caused by the fire, brought continuing fire conditions until 1951, the last time the area experienced a major burn.
Much of the land has been restored along with reforestation, but the memory of those terrible fires continue to be part of the Oregon climate story.
It is a story with a happy ending Oregon sends to Texas and the other states of the Southwest. It is a story of time, investigation to protect the land from savaging by humans and recognizing the kind of conditions that create the spread of fire and to anticipate the worst in planning the response, as authorities hope to do in alerting communities across the Southwest about the risks from fire.