FOREST FIRES MAKE HISTORY

Forest wildfires have burned more acres in Oregon in 2024 than in any other year since the modern era of reliable recording began, but so far Sandy’s town has remained unscathed by them. With the current heat advisory and 22 fires raging statewide on September 5, this fire season again feels like a “hold-your-breath” period until the rains return.

The following local forest fire history was taken from Phil Jonsrud’s account in 80 Years in the Same Neighborhood, copyright 2002 by Sandy Historical Society, Inc., page 84:

SANDY AREA FOREST FIRES

The City of Sandy was fortunate to not have been touched by any nearby forest fires but they did have several close calls, all during dry periods with strong east winds.

I remember a fire that started somewhere in the vicinity of the present State Fish Hatchery on Cedar Creek just north of Sandy in the early fall of the early 1930s.

Some of us boys in high school were called to aid the neighbors in fighting the fire. The east wind was blowing and it was terribly dry but fortunately the fire got into an area of maple and alder which doesn’t burn like the pitchy fir, so it was stopped before doing much damage, mostly due to good luck.

In about 1950, a fire near Thomas Road in Bull Run raced across a stubble field and over a hill toward the Sandy River. With a lot of help from Mel Haneberg and other Bull Run people and with a lot of luck, Fire Warden Warren Crutcher and some Sandy helpers were able to get the fire stopped on the sidehill above the river.

I happened to be one of the Sandy helpers on this fire. Fire Warden Crutcher told me that if that fire hadn’t been stopped, he believed that, due to the strong east wind, it would have “crowned” (gone into the treetops) and swept up the canyon to the southwest and burned at least part of the town of Sandy.

Another fire in the middle 1950s started on Hoffman Road between Ten Eyck Road and Marmot Road. It burned the sidehill and came charging down to a point north of Cliffside Cemetery. Firefighters and equipment were brought in to contain the fire. This also could have been a genuine threat to the City of Sandy.

In the very early days, men fought forest fires armed only with shovels, grub hoes and axes, and were virtually helpless to stop them. By the early 1920s, bulldozers were available to build fire trails more rapidly.

These days, there are smoke-jumpers, helicopters and planes to drop water and retardant. But many times, the fire fighters just have to wait until the fire burns to a place where it can be contained.

Sandy, in the year 2000, [had] a modern, well-trained fire department with “back up” from other departments so that they [were] able to handle just about anything.

RHODODENDRON

One extremely hot night in the summer of 1951, I remember waking about 2:00 a.m. to the smell of smoke. I looked out the window to the east and saw a huge, red glow in the sky south of Mt. Hood. There was a strong east wind blowing and with everything tinder dry, one could sense the danger.

How in the world could such a huge fire be stopped with such terrible weather conditions?

In the morning we heard that the village of Rhododendron was threatened and that people there were thinking of evacuating.

Then a miracle occurred. The wind changed directions so that Rhododendron was no longer threatened but the fire then raced in a south easterly direction, burning the south slope of the Laurel Hill canyon. It burned a huge area which was clearly visible from the “map curve” on Highway 26. A thick alder growth soon appeared on the burned area. In the year 2001, fir trees [were already] taking over from the alder.

Although not forest fires, several large structure fires greatly impacted the town of Sandy and other areas. This history can be for another article.