The Illusion of a great fire

 

THE ILLUSION OF A GREAT FIRE

 

On the Orleans Ranger District of the Six Rivers National Forest there were two fire lookouts, Orleans Mountain with a permanent structure at over 6000 feet in elevation and Shelton Butte at a little over 3000 feet overlooking the Klamath River.   There was no permanent lookout building on Shelton Butte, just a flat area where the Forest Service parked a trailer during periods of high fire danger to serve as living quarters for the lookout equipped with a two-way radio and an Osborne fire finder or alidade.     In the summer of 1972 the District Fire Management Assistant (FMA) put a seasonal fire crewman on Shelton Butte during high fire danger.    Shelton Butte had a better advantage of detecting fires down in the Klamath River canyon than did Orleans Mountain perched on the high ridge dividing the Salmon River drainage to the east from the Klamath River on the west side of the ridge.   Lookout personnel would have visitors on occasions, both during work hours and after work hours.    Visitors could be passing tourists or a friend of the lookout.   On one weekend the Shelton Butte lookout had a friend visiting.  I believe the friend was another seasonal fire crew member.    At sunset the lookout excitedly called in a large fire burning along the ridge line to the far west.   The FMA was puzzled since no other lookouts were reporting this fire, especially Orleans Mountain which had a longer view, even to the Pacific Ocean on a clear day.    The Shelton Butte lookout was asked to pin point the fire with the Osborne Fire finder, which gives the azimuth reading, but again he reported the entire length of the ridge was burning.   The FMA sent a fire patrolman up to the lookout to see what was going on.   Within an hour the patrolman arrived only see the glare of the sun setting through the trees along the far ridge line.   He discovered the lookout and his friend had been smoking some Humboldt tobacco and were higher than a kite and interpreting the glare of the sun through the trees on the far ridge line as a fire.  

After the patrolman reported to the FMA of what was going on over the radio the FMA relayed to the patrolman that they were fired and to vacate the lookout immediately.