Oregon Department of Forestry Fire fighter Derick Burns walks back to command center after the fire was contained to the foundation of the barn off Emigrant Creek Road in Ashland Orville Hector | Daily Tidings

Barn fire spreads to grass on Emigrant Creek Road

Cause of blaze uncertain

By Alan Panebaker
Ashland Daily Tidings

Fire crews stamped out an approximately three-acre fire on the 1000 block of Emigrant Creek road east of Ashland at about 4 p.m. today.

The fire, which started in a barn shortly before 3 p.m. spread to the outlying grass, and moderate winds might have blown it into a nearby orchard if crews had not arrived in time. The blaze send a plume of smoke up over the area outside Emigrant Lake and Dead Indian Memorial Road.

Division chief Darin Welburn with Jackson County Fire District 5 said crews arrived to find the barn engulfed in flames. Fire trucks from the Oregon Department of Forestry, Ashland Fire and Rescue and Jackson County raced up the road up to the fire this afternoon. Crews extinguished the fire within about 45 minutes, Welburn said.

Today’s fire comes on the heels of another one yesterday on Dead Indian Memorial Road that burned nearly nine acres. That blaze was started by sparks from a power line.

No one was sure how today’s blaze started, but there will be an investigation.

Sweltering, dry heat and wind blowing to the east intensified the fire. “It’s definitely hot and dry,” Welburn said. “Fortunately we didn’t get the wind yesterday that we got today.”

Hand crews worked alongside a bulldozer and local engines to put out the fire and douse the final hot spots as the flaming structure burned itself out. Welburn said crews were able to attack the fire from multiple sides and keep it contained to the reasonably small area.

“We started flanking it, then we got some knock down on it,” Welburn said.

Alex Neuman, who was the first to see the fire, said he saw smoke coming out of the barn his family uses for storage.

“I walked out, and it was just like a billow of smoke,” Neuman said.

Staff writer Alan Panebaker can be reached at 482-3456 x 227 or apanebaker@dailytidings.com.

**See June 27 Tidings for complete story

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