A Lost Weekend

As we approached the fire from the south we could see the smoke rising from the green forest canopy on the steep slopes north of the Salmon River, just about a half mile from where it flows into the Klamath River. This is near the small community of Somes Bar, which consist of a store with a post office, the Ukonom Ranger Station and few scattered houses. Our first impression was this won’t take much time to extinguish and we can get back home by dark and enjoy our weekend off. It had been a 10 mile drive up the Klamath River highway from the Orleans Ranger Station where we had just completed a day of cruising and mapping timber on a proposed sale area. It
was a warm Friday afternoon in July of 1973 when we got back to Orleans
and looking forward to the weekend. A few minutes before quitting time the
radio speaker from the fire warehouse crackled with a fire dispatch for all
personnel to respond to a fire near Somes Bar.
We arrived and parked our truck along the highway where other Forest
Service and state highway vehicles were parked. The 6 of us were combined
with others to form a 20 man crew, assigned a crew boss and given a variety
of hand tools to start constructing fire line below the highway. It was about
1000 feet from the highway to the Salmon River below as we started cutting
brush and digging a 3 foot fire line. The fire was confined to the ground and
slowly spreading up hill where the highway would serve as the upper line.
Within an hour or so we had constructed about 500 feet of line when the wind
picked up causing the fire to explode up into the canopy of the large fir and
pine trees. This also caused spot fires to start outside our contructed line
where we tried to chase these smaller fires as the wind speed increased.
Soon the fire was spreading over the top of us and our crew boss yelled,
“head down to the river”. Within a few minutes the entire crew was safely
in the Salmon River where the stream flow meandered through a gravel bar
that was about 100 feet wide. A few seconds later the fire had jumped
across the river with a deafeny roar as the entire world around us went up in
flames. In addition, we could hear the explosion of the some of the vehicles
that were parked on the highway above. At this point we knew our weekend
was shot as we started walking up river toward the bridge.
OFF Fire July & August 1973 Klamath National Forest. Named after
Offield Mountain where a lookout is located.
Here is a summary of what happened before and after.  There were 3 or 4 crew trucks with people and 1 tanker that responded from the Orleans RD, a tanker and not sure how many people from Ukonom RD and some people with the state highway department, who were doing road work at the time the fire started.  (they may have caused fire?)   More people arrived from the Happy Camp RD later, not sure how many and may have been another tanker.   Our 20 person crew constructed fire line down the east side and another crew went down the west side.  Only the tank truck operators remained on the highway to operate the pumpers as the tanker crews went down the fire lines laying hose line.  When the fire blew up and over ran the highway the tank truck operators could only drive the tankers out.  Some tried to go back and drive other vehicles out, some were removed, but ours and others were totally destroyed.  The tanker from Orleans barley made it as the spare tire mounted on the back caught fire and the plastic on the rear tail lights melted.  The hose leading off the truck burned as he drove away.  There were some houses along the highway that were destroyed and we could hear the propane tanks explode.
About the weather:  the winds in the heat of the afternoons goes up the Klamath River, and since we were on a south slope into the Salmon River, within half mile of the Klamath, the wind ran up the side canyon in all directions.
Our escape:   walking up the Salmon River toward the bridge on highway 96 there were vehicles to take us back to Orleans, also our District Fire Management Officer with tears in his eyes thinking we were burned up.  
This fire was turned over to a Regional team, a fire camp was set up in the Orleans school yard with kitchens, shower units and crews brought in from all over the region.   I ended up being squad leader on a fire line crew, mostly on night shift on Somes Mountain.  Took a month to contain, not sure number people assigned or acres burnt, maybe 80k.  It did burned into the Marble Mountain Wilderness.  There has been other fires over the years since the Off Fire over the same area.  
Google earth might be the best place to see the geography of the area.   The Ukonom Ranger station is no longer at Somes Bar, since it was built on Indian burial ground and the ground under it was moving as cracks were showing.  The two Districts are now in one office in Orleans.