August 16, 2020 | 1:29 p.m. PDT
A vegetation fire that spread into an auto wrecking yard Saturday was attacked by firefighters on the ground and at least five aircraft. Hundreds of homes were threatened including a mobile home park next door.
Footage from KTVZ showed numerous water drops by an Air-Crane, Helicopter 3AC. At least two Single Engine Air Tankers also worked the fire, as well as two other helicopters, an S61 and a third that may have been a Bell 205, said Brendan O’Reilly, Superintendent of the Prineville Hotshots who was on scene.
Numerous vehicles were on fire in the wrecking yard producing a thick column of black smoke.
“Maybe 25 acres [were burning] in the wildland around several structures, and then about 10 acres in the junkyard although due to the thick toxic smoke and exploding airbags and tires, we couldn’t accurately map the whole perimeter on the ground,” Superintendent O’Reilly said. “I’d never personally seen helicopters used on a junkyard fire. The helicopters were much more effective than SEATs due to the thick black smoke column, but still couldn’t do much except limit spread to adjacent structures. It took structure engines with SCBAs to make any headway in the junkyard itself, but that was after hours of tires and airbags exploding. It was a very interesting evening.”
“Due to the air attack resources we were able to make an aggressive stop on the fire,” said Trish Connolly, Battalion Chief for Bend County Fire Department. “Today we know that we lost two outbuildings and [and there was] damage to a commercial building.”
Evacuations were in effect while the fire was spreading but were lifted late in the day.
Early reports say the fire started east of the railroad that is just east of the wrecking yard.
The video below shows several drops by the Air-Crane helicopter, 3AC.
Thanks and a tip of the hat go out to Brendan.