Local officials, fire incident team commander with Phoenix High School ties say memories of Almeda Fire in 2020 remain strong

By Buffy Pollock, Rogue Valley Times

Five years since the Phoenix-Talent School District was devastated by the 2020 Almeda Fire, district officials say they jumped at the chance to offer a much-needed home base for nearly 200 firefighters grappling with dozens of fires impacting the region over the past week.

Oregon Department of Forestry crews set up a spike camp on school district property along Colver Road on Friday to be closer to ongoing mop-up operations for the 250-acre Neil Creek Road Fire near Ashland and other fires in the Grizzly Peak Complex.

ODF officials said the location allowed firefighters to be closer to one of the larger recent fires and to minimize time spent on the road, and to provide closer access to ongoing fires in the region.

The Neil Creek Road Fire was first reported July 8, just after 12:30 p.m. following thunderstorms the previous night that brought hundreds of lightning strikes and resulting spot fires.

Within hours, the fire — fueled by heavy winds — grew from less than an acre to 25 acres, then 80 acres, with evacuation notices issued almost immediately for residents south of Ashland, and prompting lane closures along Interstate 5. Some evacuation notices remain in place, but all were downgraded to Level 1 – Be Ready around 1 p.m. Monday, the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office said in a post.

On Saturday, school district Assistant Superintendent Tiffanie Lambert surveyed the fire camp with tents covering a hillside adjacent to sports fields and a lineup of firetrucks and water tankers flanked by rows of yellow school buses.

Lambert said the district was happy for an opportunity to give back to firefighters who “worked tirelessly for the community during 2020 fires.”

District officials, she said, vividly remember the Almeda Fire, which burned over 3,000 acres and destroyed more than 2,600 homes, raging toward Phoenix High School and displacing more than 80% of the district’s students.

The high school campus was nearing completion of a $45 million rebuild — the bulk of a $68 million bond passed by voters in 2017 — when flames surrounded the campus and reduced nearby homes to ashes.

Just over a third of district students lost their homes in the fire and the district is still recovering five years later, Lambert said. Helping firefighters, many of whom battled the Almeda blaze, was an “opportunity to show our gratitude.”

“I’ll never forget what Superintendent Brent Barry told me, the day after the Almeda Fire, how firefighters — exhausted and emotional — told him at a barricade, ‘We saved the high school.’” Lambert said.

“In the midst of so much devastation, they protected something that symbolized hope for our whole community. Even at The Expo, during evacuations, people who had lost everything would ask me, ‘Is the high school still there?’ … What those firefighters saved was more than a building; it was a beacon of hope and resilience. We’re still grateful five years later.”

Tyler McCarty, incident commander for ODF Incident Management Team 3 that took over operations locally last week to free up resources, said a large fire burning so close to communities impacted by the Almeda Fire had weighed on the minds of firefighters this week.

“I think this valley went through a lot in the Almeda Fire and it takes time to overcome that,” he told the Rogue Valley Times.

“These firefighters are working their tails off and they’re trying to get it out as quickly as possible because we know what the communities went through in 2020.”

McCarty, a local native and 2001 Phoenix High graduate, said the looming heat wave would be a challenge for fire crews.

“We’ve got some tough days ahead of us, with some tough weather coming, but we’re also making some pretty good progress,” he said.

“If we can get through this next heat wave, I think we’ll be in a pretty good spot.”

ODF spokesperson Natalie Weber said having a spike camp set up in close proximity to the Neil Creek Road Fire — the main ODF camp is in Provolt — had been helpful for taxed resources.

Weber said crews removed hazard trees on the south side of the fire over the weekend and contended with heavy winds.

“Things are looking good. The fire is still 100% lined. … The big thing today was removing a lot of those hazard trees so firefighters can get in and mop up those areas,” Weber said.

“We have all of these fires pretty much in check right now, and we’re trying really hard to keep it that way so we really don’t need any new ones. With the heat wave we have going on, one single spark could produce a large fire. We have resources dedicated on so many fronts so it’s imperative that people don’t do anything that could create heat near dry grass.”

Reach reporter Buffy Pollock at 458-488-2029 or bpollock@rv-times.com. Follow her on Twitter @orwritergal. This story first appeared in the Rogue Valley Times.