UPDATED: Crews stop advance of Turner Road fire
As of 7 p.m., fire crews are mopping up and monitoring the Turner Road fire and level 2 evacuations have been lifted.
Read an updated story on the fire here.
Evacuations
LEVEL 3 GO NOW: The Marion County Sheriff’s Office has ordered a level 3 evacuation, meaning leave immediately, along Turner Road near Southeast Rising Iris Lane, due to the fire.
LEVEL 2 BE READY: People from Gath Road to Barcelona to Witzel South to Hideaway to Turner Road to Crawford Landing should be ready to evacuate at a moment’s notice, fire officials said. That includes the Crawford Crossing apartments near Turner Lake.
Road closures
Southeast Turner Road is closed to all east and westbound traffic starting at Kuebler Road, Salem police said. Southbound traffic on Deerpark Drive is being diverted to westbound Mill Creek Road.
Fire updates
4:42 p.m. Fire crews have surrounded the Turner Fire and are continuing air drops of water.
Firefighters for now have stopped the fire’s advance south, but their primary concern is it spreading to the brush, said Salem Assistant Fire Chief Brian Carrara.
“We think we have it under control,” he said.
4:00 p.m. The Oregon State Fire Marshal deployed two “fire boss” aircrafts from The Dalles to drop water on the blaze.
3:23 p.m.: The fire is about six acres and is burning south about a mile from the outskirts of Turner. The southwest corner of the fire is still growing, fire officials said.
Mike Schaufler, Turner mayor, said he’s monitoring the situation but not preparing to evacuate.
“Dry as a bone,” he said of the weather conditions.
Wind is blowing from the north-northwest at about 5 to 8 MPH, pushing the fire southeast, according to meteorologist David Bishop of the National Weather Service’s Portland office.
“Any wind has the potential to pick up embers and cause spotting,” he said.
The fire appears to be near the border of state land owned by the Department of Corrections and a Salem company.
Sean Blackburn of Salem-based Herron Crossing LLC said on Wednesday he had been informed of the fire on the company’s land by some of the tenants. Blackburn said many of the structures on the property are old barns and that he has tenants running a cattle ranching operation.
2:40 p.m.: GO NOW: The Marion County Sheriff’s Office has ordered a level 3 evacuation, meaning leave immediately, along Turner Road near Southeast Rising Iris Lane, due to the fire.
The area is sparsely populated with a few homes.
Original story:
A roughly 5-acre grass fire has spread to multiple structures in a field along Southeast Gath Road, according to Salem Fire Department officials.
Multiple barns on fire were visible from a nearby road, with roofs caving in. No injuries are reported.
Fire crews were attempting to contain the fire around 2:30 p.m. by closing down surrounding roads. Dispatch records showed eight units dispatched to the fire with a ninth unit en route.
The land is near the Oregon State Correctional Institution, a medium-security prison, and Corban University.
The fire was sparked by a downed power pole which fell after a vehicle crashed into it at the intersection of Gath and Turner roads, according to the Marion County Sheriff’s Office.
Crews were dispatched around 1:45 p.m.
Deputies have closed Gath Road between Turner Road and Witzel Road to respond to the crash.
Nearly 160 households near Southeast Turner Road had lost power as of 2:40 p.m. Wednesday, according to Portland General Electric’s outage map.
This story is developing and will be updated.
CORRECTION: A previous version of this story misspelled Southeast Witzel Road. Salem Reporter apologizes for the error.
RELATED COVERAGE: Turner Fire burns 30 acres of former prison farmland
Contact reporter Joe Siess: [email protected] or 503-335-7790.
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