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Sisters, Oregon
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The contents of the on-line edition of The Nugget represent a selection among the stories that appear in the weekly print edition.

Link Fire contained after week-long battle
By Jim Cornelius

Smoke and flames made the forest dangerous for firefighters. photo by Matt Cyrus

After a long and nervous week, Link Fire Incident Commander Mike Morcom reported that the 3,574-acre blaze was 100 percent contained Sunday night, July 13.

The fire is not out, however. The Blue Mountain Interagency Fire Team noted in a release that "even after the perimeter of the fire is fully cooled, large interior fuels will continue to burn for some time, and smoke will be seen in the area of the fire for possibly many weeks."

The human-caused fire started late Saturday, July 5, in the forests west of Sisters. Camp Tamarack and the campgrounds in the Dark Lake area were evacuated early on, as a precautionary measure.

The Suttle Lake campgrounds and the resort never closed.

For several days, the fire looked like it was well on its way to containment. Then, on Thursday, temperatures in the 90s helped the fire spread into steep terrain littered with dead materials. The fire ran up Little Cache Mountain and an adjacent cinder cone and started throwing spot fires as far as 8/10ths of a mile from the main body of the fire.

That day, the fire nearly doubled in size, from 1,100 to 2,100 acres.

Suddenly, the Link Fire was poised to threaten Black Butte Ranch. The Ranch initiated Phase II of its emergency plan, putting fire and law enforcement personnel on heightened alert. Search and Rescue teams were on stand-by to evacuate the Ranch if the fire approached (see related story).

Law enforcement personnel and Ranch management sought to avoid a repeat of last year's evacuation during the Cache Mountain Fire, when a sudden run pushed the fire onto the Ranch and some 4,000 residents and guests were forced to evacuate in a space of about 20 minutes.

This time, Ranch police and management, along with the other cooperating agencies, set a demarcation line two miles west of the Ranch.

BBR Police Chief Gil Zaccaro told Ranch residents at a meeting Friday morning, July 11, that "Any fire past the two-mile line, whether it's a spot or the actual fire, we're going to evacuate the Ranch."

The fire crept to within 3-1/2 miles of the Ranch, but came no closer.

Firefighters attacked the fire aggressively on Friday and Saturday, using extensive air resources and multiple ground crews.

Despite winds that kicked up from a marine onshore flow on Saturday, the fire lines on the flank nearest Black Butte Ranch held secure all day and night.

Firefighters were able to get a perimeter around the fire, which they strengthened and connected all day Sunday to achieve full containment.

As of Saturday night, the fire's cost was estimated at $3.1 million.

The effort was massive. As of Sunday there were 953 people working on the fire including 29 twenty-person hand crews.

There were 42 engines, six bulldozers, 21 water tenders, and four helicopters still working on the fire.

Three air tankers (and one reserve) had also made heavy runs on the blaze in the preceding days.

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