Fire near Sisters

Friend of mine lives bewtween Sisters and Bend with great views of mountains. Last night they sat on their front porch with friends who had to evacuate their home near Sisters watching the smoke from the fire. The home they left not all that far from US-20.

My wife was heading to Bend this AM. He advised she go over Mt Hood, US-26 which she did. I go tomorrow with pop-up and daughter. likely I will do same. Though will check again in AM. sounds like a good day to knock it down a bit. If US-20 closed in front of you there is no simple way around OR-242 already closed.

One year when we went over they closed US-20 about 15 minutes after we went through. a forest fire again.

So any one with travel plans that way may need to consider alternative in next few days.

Fire near Sisters

I saw something about this on the news late last night, how terrible :(

Hopefully the wind will die down and the clouds we are seeing will drop some moisture in that area...

Fire near Sisters

I do hope this fire gets contained quickly. The area is so beautiful, and of course the people who live there. Good idea to let people know of an alternate route. And the 26/97 route is scenic.

I hope you all have a safe trip. Let us know how it goes:)

Just got back from a trip to the coast and hwy 20 is open and clear. All the smoke is flowing into Bend now : ( Black Crater fire (closest to Sisters) is now only 5% contained and over 4500 acres have burned. Not a good scene.

How are things today?

I think the hwy 20 ';closure'; was more of a slowdown - when they did the evac of the tollgate neighborhood travelers were asked to take other routes to avoid traffic problems.

It%26#39;s still very smoky in Bend. Our friends in Sisters have packed and are ready to evac ';just in case';. The firefighters seem to be getting better control, but things can change - for better or for worse - very quickly in these situations.

The local media is doing a good job of posting updated information. Check ktvz.com or bendbulletin.com for status. They are also keeping tripcheck.com updated for slowdowns, closures, etc for the highways.

I imagine you%26#39;ve seen the news too, Scarlett, but I heard this morning that the fire has now burned 9,000 acres. Tragic is the only word that fits.

Has anyone heard how the fire started?

mistletoe--Lightning was the cause. Tragic is definitely the appropriate word for this.

As of this afternoon, the fire is 20% contained. The weather yesterday and today has been in the 70s and the humidity up a bit, two factors that are helping firefighters. It%26#39;s kind of cloudy today anyway, but the smoke is covering the view of the Cascades from my house in west Bend. Although the fire had grown to 9,200 acres as of this morning, the Sheriff%26#39;s office says that is because of fires that were puposefully set to fight the main fire. A National team from the Southern U.S. was reportedly being sent to assume the Black Crater Fire today. Nothing in the news that I%26#39;ve seen about closing Hwy. 20 at this point

Things are hazy and stinky scarlette. No sir, I don%26#39;t like it!

We just returned yesterday from Bend. We saw the Kahneeta fire as well as the Sisters fire close up. The Kah-Nee-Tah resort has not been affected by the fire there, it just looks like smoke signals. :-) However, it is quite near to the resort.

We watched the Sisters fire race up the mountain slopes from our seat at Black Butte Ranch. A lot of the roads were closed, and the smoke was filling the air from central Bend all the way up to Black Butte, totally obscuring any view at all of the cascades (sad). There were military aircraft buzzing over our heads to and from the fire all afternoon.

US-20 was open, but MacKenzie Pass Road and others were closed, branching off. The Tollgate area was evacuated - we were talking to some of those folks over dinner on Saturday. Sisters was almost deserted on Sunday, and they were not sure that it wouldn%26#39;t be evacuated this week.