An Oregon Department of Forestry truck in Gales Creek taken August 7, 2018. Photo: Chas Hundley
HAYWARD - A wildfire is burning near the Hayward area in the area between the two ends of Parson Road that no longer connect.According to Oregon Department of Forestry Forest Grove District Forester Mike Cafferata, Banks Fire District 13 and ODF crews are on the scene of a roughly U acre wildfire. We have a wet line around the front of the fire so growth has largely been stopped, Cafferata said in an email to the Banks Post. In addition to Banks Fire District 13 and ODF, a crew of prison inmates from the South Fork Forest Camp are enroute to assist in finishing containment of the fire.
"As the saying goes, police officers and firefighters have one thing in common, they both want to be firefighters," said Forest Grove Fire & Rescue after police put out a fence fire before fire crews could arrive.
A home was significantly damaged and nine cats died from smoke inhalation, while two more were rescued in Forest Grove Monday afternoon. A massive response from neighboring fire agencies was due to the fire inadvertently being upgraded to a 2nd alarm.
A proposed toll road linking Forest Grove and Tillamook faced opposition, but Gales Creek residents would take any road they could get, according to a 1925 newspaper article.
"County Jail Filled to Overflow With Arrests Made" including Ernest Narver, Frank Kearns, Thomas Young, and Roy Kearns, all arrested at Balm Grove on liquor possession charges in Prohibition-era Gales Creek.
People are shooting exploding targets and firing hot lead into dry vegetation in the Tillamook Forest with predictable results: Five wildfires since May. These fires are all preventable, said Acting Forest Grove District Forester Stephanie Beall.
