The car that started the grass fire along Vitae Springs Road South on Monday, Sept. 13 (Salem Fire Department photo)
Update: As of 5 p.m. Tuesday, all evacuations for the fire have been lifted. Original story below.
Evacuations for the Vitae Springs Fire south of Salem were reduced to a Level 1 status, meaning residents should be ready for potential evacuation.
The advisory covers the south side of the 4000 – 43000 block of Vitae Springs Road South, including side roads River Springs Drive South and River Heights Lane South, the Marion County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release Tuesday morning.
Around 12:45 p.m. on Monday, a car struck a telephone power pole on Vitae Road South around the 4,000 block, where it started a grass fire and brush fire, Salem Fire Chief Mike Niblock said at a Salem City Council meeting Monday evening.
“With the breeze that we had today, that quickly turned into a pretty large event,” Niblock said at the meeting.
The fire quickly spread to around 50 acres across the hillside and put three to four homes in “immediate jeopardy,” he said.
Crews contained the fire around 4 p.m. on Monday before it reached the uphill side in a forested area, where 35 residents had been contacted — mostly door-to-door — and asked to leave immediately. Niblock said no structures were lost and nobody was injured.
Crews at one point requested a helicopter water drop but canceled the request before deploying it.
Niblock said nearly all Salem fire personnel responded to the fire, with assistance from the Oregon State Fire Marshal’s office and Marion and Polk county agencies.
“I’d encourage people to really be careful with fire outside,” he said. “It’s super, super dry still, even though were in September, and the fires can really get away really quickly
-Ardeshir Tabrizian
