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Crews responded Monday to a half-acre fire at Spencer Butte, which was closed to the public as firefighters worked to put it out.
This story was updated as of 6:45 a.m. Tuesday Sept. 9.
Eugene Springfield Fire crews drove toward Spencer Butte on Monday after a fire, likely sparked by lightning, broke out in the forest. But engines could go only so far before firefighters had to continue on foot.
They hiked through thick, thorny brush to the northeast face of the butte. Oregon Department of Forestry hand crews, already out patrolling the morning’s thunderstorms, joined them to dig a line to contain the fire.
An ODF helicopter circled above, scoping the fire at about half an acre and dropping water — visible from south Eugene neighborhoods.
The fire burned slowly, giving crews time to keep it from burning down toward neighborhoods. No evacuations have been ordered.
At the Cascades Raptor Center, staff went on high alert after spotting smoke near the wildlife hospital.
Knowing the fire was close, a rehabilitator hiked up the Ridgeline Trail from Fox Hollow Road. He helped the firefighters pinpoint the fire’s location, said Kit Lacy, the center’s chief operations officer.
Meanwhile, Lacy and other raptor center staff called colleagues and volunteers to ask them to stand by. It was one step in a binder-thick evacuation plan they ended up not having to put into motion.
She described what that plan would look like, however: moving to staging areas, keeping records safe and accounting for every person and bird. Many of the birds are trained to get into crates as part of the center’s avian ambassador program, which offers flight exhibits to visitors.
“They’re jumping in on their own. They practice it nearly every single day in some capacity,” she said. “It’s a matter of asking those birds into their travel crates.”
By Monday afternoon, Lacy said staff were still on standby but “feeling a little bit better as more water [from the helicopter] is dropped.”
On the west side of Spencer Butte, runners and hikers were still coming off the Ridgeline Trail. A Lane County Sheriff’s Office deputy stretched yellow tape across the trailhead at 52nd Avenue and Willamette Street, closing it to the public.
Mark Richardson was walking his dog, though he wasn’t there to use the trail, but rather to learn the latest about a fire his own son, Payton, was helping to fight.
Richardson has lived in the area for seven years, and his son happened to be assigned to the very fire burning outside his window, he said.
“I’m less nervous about it knowing he’s up there, because he’s such a conscientious young man,” said Richardson, who has never seen a fire happen at Spencer Butte but observed increasing fire danger in what is essentially his backyard.
“We have been noticing over the last several years, more and more dying trees on the Butte, and the neighborhood just really feels like it’s only a matter of time till there is some kind of bad fire.”
Residents in south Eugene and along the city limits have been preparing for that possibility — doing work on properties to clear brush, open space around homes and reduce fire risk.
Cooler weather and rain helped limit the fire’s spread alongside the firefighting response. Crews worked late Monday as the fire smoldered, cutting down trees that could pose future hazards and continuing efforts to keep the blaze small.
