August 19th, 1967
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Idaho Gov. Don Samuelson sent National Guardsmen into the battle against a stubborn forest fire near the Canadian border today as timber blazes crackled in five Western states and British Columbia. More than 40,000 acres of grass, brush and timberland have been charred the past three days in the nation’s worst outbreak of fires this summer.
Hot, dry weather heightened the fire danger. Samuelson declared a state of emergency in the Trapper Peak area, 10 miles from the Canadian border, where 3,200 acres of forest were blackened. He said the situation could worsen if electrical storms occur during the weekend. Some 25,000 acres were burned in British Columbia as strong winds fanned the flames. In an effort to ease the danger, all logging operations were ordered shut down. Campfire permits were suspended in one forest and a recreational closure was ordered for another.
Fires also ravaged timber and brush lands in Montana, Washington, Oregon and California. Forest Rangers warned weekend travelers to use extreme caution with smoking materials. In California an army of smoke-eaters controlled a forest fire which burned 1,000 acres in the Lake County vacation area. The blaze erupted Friday afternoon as the thermometer soared over the 100-degree mark.
On the north coast, a fire began eating into Douglas fir trees after raging through 3,500 acres of grass and brush near the Eel River. Fire fighters hoped to control a 390-acre fire in the Siskiyou National Forest in Oregon today. The blaze had been out of control for three days, there has not been rain in the area since June 1. Gov. Tom McCall flew over Western Oregon Friday and said a dry lightning forecast “could create an explosive situation†because the forests were bone dry.
A lightning-caused fire south of Jordan Valley, Ore., seared 750 acres of ranchland. Two blazes were ruining picturesque areas of Glacier National Park in Montana. One blackened 2,000 acres and jumped into the Flathead National Forest. The other burned about 500 acres in a remote area which includes high, rocky cliffs. Glacier Park Supt. Keith Nielson ordered two lookouts evacuated because “dense smoke made it difficult to see anything.†Besides the two big fires, he said, nine small ones were reported in the park. In Washington, Forest Rangers reported that all the fires in their areas were minor. However, trey feared the influx of weekend fun-seekers could make the situation dangerous.
Canadian foresters said fires devoured thousands of acres of virgin timber in the Nelson, Kamloops and Prince George regions. A 2,500-acre blaze on Vancouver Island was controlled after a 48-hour battle. Thirty-three fires surged through more than 10,000 acres in the Prince George region. Fires at Bak and Tuff consumed 5,000 acres each. In the vicinity of Kamloops and Nelson. 260 fires roared over nearly 10,000 acres.
Fire Series Rakes Pacific Northwest
August 21st, 1967
https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=DS19670821. ... --1967---1
Hundreds of lighting-sparked forest fires roared across the tinder dry Pacific Northwest today, some with such intensity that weary firemen walked off the battle lines in frustration. The rash of blazes, fanned by a record heal wave, already has charred more than 51,000 acres of brush and timber in five Western states and British Columbia. Major fires were out of control in Idaho, Oregon, Montana and British Columbia, where two Canadian fire spotters were missing in a plane crash.
California and Washington reported only minor blazes, but the continuing hot, dry spell left conditions explosive. The mercury climbed to 100 degrees throughout the fire area again Sunday. Lewiston, Idaho, recorded its 11th consecutive day of temperatures above 100. Portland, Ore., was expected to tie an all-time record todayâ€â€60 consecutive days with no measurable rain.
British Columbia was hardest hit, with 30,000 acres destroyed by some 400 fires in the past week. The toughest fire-fighting conditions were reported in the rugged mountain country of Northern Idaho. Three major timber fires jumped lines in the area Sunday, and a fast-moving dry lightning storm set nine new blazes. The situation was far worse than Friday, which Idaho Gov. Don Samuelson proclaimed a state of emergency.
A U.S. Forestry spokesman said the Trapper Peak fire jumped state-manned lines and burned downhill over rugged terrain. The conflagration has destroyed nearly 4.000 acres, despite the efforts of 1,000 firefighters. The spokesman said the blaze was so tough some smoke-eaters were walking off the lines without collecting their pay. He said some men had to be pulled up cliffs by rope after flames drove them back into deadend rock formation. A call went out for 500 additional men to replace some of the firefighters who had been battling the blaze for 10 days.
Meanwhile the Kaniksu Mountain fire northwest of Trapper doubled in size to nearly 500 acres despite the efforts of 350 men. The Plume Creek blaze,10 miles northeast of Sand Point, Idaho, exploded from 30 acres to an estimated 600 in two days. The situation in British Columbia was so bad that officials closed outdoor recreation areas including Stanley Park in downtown Vancouver. Two fire spotters were reported missing when their light plane crashed Sunday in the Nelson forest district.
Northwest Plagued By Forest Fires
August 22nd, 1967
https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=SCS19670822 ... --1967---1
Vast forest land areas of Idaho, Oregon, Montana and British Columbia were aflame today as firefighters sought to overcome manpower shortages, dry weather, and a threat of lightning storms in the Northeast. More than 400 new fires were reported yesterday in the region. Washington State officials said the forest fire threat there was the worst in history.
Spokesmen for the U.S. Forest Service regional office in Ogden Utah, said exact estimates on the number and size of the fires are impossible. "We don't have enough men to cover all the fires," Richard Stauber, Forest Service information officer, said. "We've been trying to fight the big ones and then on to the others as we can." He said the Forest Service, stale and volunteer groups hoped to muster enough manpower today to control all but the most minor blazes. No fatalities have been reported.
A major blaze southwest of the small north Idaho community of Peck mushroomed out of control. More than four square miles of tinder-dry-trees and grass had been blackened last night. About 70 other smaller fires were burning in north Idaho, while southern Idaho firefighters attempted to choke off the largest of 80 blazes. Hardest hit were Payette and Salmon National forests. More than 250 new fires have hit Idaho since Sunday night. In Oregon than 1,000 men faced blazes racing over 250,000 acres. The largest was a 140,000-acre fire on Bureau of Land Management property south of Burns. Three ranch houses were destroyed in an 8,000-acre fire southwest of The Dalles in central Oregon near the Washington border.
With more than 13,000 acres of Canadian timberland on fire, British Columbia faced possible labor problems. Walter Allen, president of an International Woodworkers of America local, said the union is investigating complaints of meals, hiring methods, hours and other conditions in the section where a 6,000-acre blaze is raging on Vancouver Island. Another 7,000 acres of British Columbia forests were burning out of control in the Dawson Creek area at Portage Mountain. More than 1,300 men were reported fighting the Canadian fires.
About 150 new fires had been reported in Montana, where blazes have broken out at an average of of 15 per day since June. Hardest hit has been Glacier National Park where 5,000 acres have been blackened by two blazes. The U.S. Weather Bureau put out a "red flag alert" Monday. This was termed the worst kind of firefighting weather possible. Many of the lightning storms which hit Sunday were "dry storms" -- setting fires but giving no rain to the parched areas.
