Medford/Ashland fires

[Juniper]

The Slater fire was/is a serious matter, of course not as much so as an immediate urban interface fire, but entire small communities remain in danger, and with the wind in play that night, it was a VERY serious matter. It could easily have ended up very differently.

Here is the blurb I was referencing before. Around 1:30 AM people were warned to be ready at a moments notice, there was no more info until 9am when Takilma and areas North of Obrien were ordered evacuated. I don't know why it formats weird when I copy/paste from that site, but it does and im not taking the time to fix it.

Sara Rubrecht, JosephineCounty's emergency manager,said it was at a 7 a.m. Wednes-day meeting with fire chiefsthat she learned that fire wasover the crest of mountains thatstraddle the Oregon-Californiaborder. She said she wasunaware of the Slater Fire’srapid spread, in part becauseshe and others were paying somuch attention to events inJackson County, where Phoenixand Talent were partlydestroyed by wind-drivenflames from the Almeda Fire.Resources from JosephineCounty were aiding efforts inJackson County. Also, the SlaterFire moved quickly, fanned byhigh winds. In addition, no fire-fighting resources actually wereworking the Slater Fire, whichRubrecht referred to as “anunstaffed fire.” It’s now grownto 140,802 acres, and has atleast 240 firefighters working it.“On Tuesday, everythingaround Josephine County wason fire,” Rubrecht said. “Every-body’s attention was on Jack-son County and Douglas Countyand northern Oregon. We weretrying to pay attention to thegreatest need. Right then, thegreatest need was the peoplewho were coming to us [fromJackson County] with theirhomes on fire.”It shows, Rubrecht said, thatpeople should flee if they feel indanger.“You don’t have to wait forus to tell you to go,” she said.“Please, if you’re uncomfort-able, don't wait for us. We haveset expectations for informationso high. The public has to havesome self-responsibility

when Jack-son County’s fires became criti-cal, Josephine County’s main emergency communications venues were silent about theSlater Fire, which also wasgrowing rapidly.

Was the expectation  really that high?  Wasn't it just a reasonable expectation? But, now that we know, we should be learning to be pro active in keeping informed.  Sheesh!