Arson blaze by Emigrant Lake was upwind of Ashland, southeast gusts would have driven flames toward town
By Morgan Rothborne, Ashland.news
A wind-driven grass fire ignited near Almeda Drive on Sept. 8, 2020, ravaged its way northwest through the wildland urban interface, destroying thousands of structures through Talent and Phoenix. The direction of the wind that day is often credited with preserving Ashland from the fire. But there was also a quick intervention from the south, when firefighters with the Greensprings Rural Fire District extinguished a vehicle fire intentionally set on fire at Emigrant Lake.
The little volunteer fire department of Greensprings was monitoring the situation that day with concern as a grass fire reported just after 11 a.m. became something larger, remembered Gene Davies, chief and co-founder of the department, in an interview with Ashland.news just before this year’s anniversary.
Greensprings firefighters prepared to respond, knowing their mutual aid agreements with Ashland Fire & Rescue and Jackson County Fire District No. 5 called for them to respond if the fire reached three alarms. They were ready when the call came, but were surprised en route when they heard over the radio of a vehicle fire on Highway 66 in the Emigrant Lake area a little after 12:30 p.m.
“That was our location, so we stopped. … It was fully involved. There were probably 10-foot flame lengths,” Davies said.
A huge stand of blackberries nearby meant a second fire could have been whipped up by the wind into the readily combustible fuel and left Ashland caught between two fires.
Ashland’s Emergency Management Coordinator Kelly Burns said that, while he was acting as incident commander, hearing about the vehicle fire over the radio was daunting.
“I just remember turning around and looking to the south side of Ashland. …. There’s no doubt in my mind if they hadn’t gotten there at the right time, the wind that day would have carried embers and sparks,” Burns said.
If the fire had caught nearby vegetation, Burns said he believes it would have eaten from the neighborhoods closest to Emigrant Lake and into Ashland. He had no one to send — all available resources for Ashland Fire & Rescue had their hands full, separated from this new threat by miles of already snarled traffic.
When Davies’ voice came over the radio offering help, Burns recalled, as he was listening to five radio channels at once, it was luck or something larger that he was even able to catch the message.
“I always laugh when I run into Kelly,” Davies said. “We see each other at the (YMCA) quite a bit, and he always tells me ‘You guys saved Ashland.’ …. That’s unknowable. You really only know when you’ve lost one.”
Greensprings firefighters extinguished the vehicle fire, then stayed for a while to monitor hot spots and detain the man who identified himself to firefighters as both vehicle owner and the one who started the fire. Davies said he and his firefighters “kept an eye” on the suspect until law enforcement could arrive and detain him.
The man, Vance Phuc Nguyen, 48, pleaded guilty to first-degree arson on Jan. 12, 2022, and was sentenced in Jackson County Circuit Court to four years in prison.
After this dramatic incident, Greensprings firefighters responded to fight the Almeda Fire and fought for 30 hours straight, remaining around the command post at the Comfort Inn with other responders through the fight.
“The hotel was really poorly named, the Comfort Inn. I tried to sleep on their lawn at about 4 a.m. and it wasn’t very comfortable,” Davies said.
He was also proud to remember Greensprings firefighters were organized into their own division, tasked with protecting homes and mobile homes in the Valley View Road area.
“People are like, ‘you saved our trailer park,’” Davies said.
The Greensprings Fire Department covers around a 164 square-mile area, including the unincorporated area of Greensprings, the towns of Lincoln and Pinehurst and resort areas such as Hyatt Lake and Howard Prairie Lake. Rural fires and medical incidents along with periodic alcohol-driven incidents in the resort areas keep the little department busy.
Davies said the department was created around 20 years ago when a local resident fell off his bike, broke his collarbone and went into the Greensprings Inn restaurant for help. Davies and others watched while the injured man began to go into shock waiting for help. He and others decided it would be good to have some kind of first responders for the rural area where they lived.
He estimated the department has around nine volunteers right now, which is “a little low.” Anyone who wants to volunteer is welcome.
More help will be needed, as climate change ensures an incident such as Almeda will happen again, Davies said. But the incident did inspire the department to deepen its previous commitment to training and being the best prepared it can be to serve its local residents and assist in the wider Rogue Valley.
“The thing I’m happiest about is being in the right place at the right time,” he said.
Email Ashland.news reporter Morgan Rothborne at morganr@ashland.news.
Sept. 8: Corrected to say the arsonist set gasoline, not propane, on fire.
