09/18/08 Crescent Lake Junction
ODOT will REOPEN Highway 58 at 2pm Thursday 9/18.  Speed restrictions in place at Willamette Pass and Crescent Lake areas.
Updated information as of 11am Thursday:
 
 

The Royce Butte Fire on the Deschutes NF 12 miles west of Crescent, has burned approximately 381 acres of private and national forest land.
 
Approximately 147 homes were threatened and residents were evacuated Tuesday evening ; no structures have been lost. A Red Cross Shelter is currently set up at the Crescent Community Center.
 
Management of the Royce Butte Fire is a Unified Command shared between the State Fire Marshal's Incident Management Team (OSFM) and the Central Oregon Incident Management Team (COIMT), with the COIMT working on wildland fire suppression and the OSFM managing structural protection. The fire is 20 percent contained.
 
The fire laid down Wednesday night, crews made good progress and the fire held within containment lines . However, two intense heat areas in the south end of the fire were observed by infrared cameras during a flyover this morning at 0100 hours.
 
ODF resources assigned to this fire include a severity funded Type 2 helicopter. The Coos and Veneta engines as well as one task force have been released.
 
Highway 58 at MilePost 70 is still closed.   We'll have the latest on the closures and evacuations on KOHD News at 5pm and 6pm.
 
9/17/08 Near Crescent Lake Junction
 
by Ariel Wesler
 
A twelve mile stretch of Highway 58 will be closed for at least the rest of the day as smoke blows across the road.
 
“It's a major freight corridor and that's the real impact of what's going on right now, getting those trucks up and over the pass,” said Peter Murphy of ODOT.
 
The Royce Butte Fire has burned an estimated 400 acres, down from what was orginally predicted and is ten percent contained. Despite the progress, this was a potentially dangerous day for firefighters.
 
"These are exactly the kind of fires, especially on a transition day with different firefighters coming in, that we have to be extra careful because we're fighting the fire and people are getting the information they need to know what's going on,” said Fire Information Officer Virginia Gibbons with the U.S. Forest Service.
 
Helicopters were on scene dropping buckets of water on flames. Firefighters also completed a dozer line around the area, but they continue to face unpredictable winds, making containment more difficult. Fire crews, including Black Butte Ranch and La Pine, continue battling the fire. Gov. Ted Kulongoski has invoked the state's Conflagration Act, which allows the state fire marshal to mobilize resources from across Oregon.
 
“We want to keep the fire over there,” said Firefighter Jeremiah Wood. “We're trying to keep it down. We're not necessarily trying to put it out at this point, but we're trying to cool it down to keep those open flames up.”
 
The fire started around two o' clock Tuesday afternoon and is burning about one mile east of the Crescent Lake Junction Community. That community has been completely evacuated along with the diamond peaks subdivision and other residences near Crescent and O'Dell lakes. The fire forced the evacuation of 120 residents and threatened more than 100 homes. A red cross shelter has been set up for evacuees at the Crescent Community Club.