BY ISOLDE RAFTERY COLUMBIAN STAFF WRITER
It was a scorcher of a Saturday.
Several grass fires, including two larger ones near Interstate 5, erupted during the day, fanned outward by cooling winds. None damaged any structures, but they were spectacular.
At a 2 p.m. fire near Leverich Park, flames reached 30 to 40 feet into the air.
"The sun and heat dried it out," said Capt. Bill Garlington of the Vancouver Fire Department. "A little bit of a breeze, some dried-up fuels — what's missing is the ignition. Everything else is just right."
The cause was not immediately available. Ignition can come in several forms — a bolt of lightning, sparks from a passing train, a hot catalytic converter. But the cause of a grass fire is often human, such as a cigarette that wasn't properly extinguished.
With temperatures exceeding 100 degrees last week, people stayed indoors to avoid the heat. Meantime, the sun sucked the plants dry, so that when temperatures cooled enough for people to venture out, human ignition sources could kick off a fire.
The fire near Leverich Park drew 35 firefighters, who used hoses that shoot 600 to 800 gallons of water a minute. Also on hand were six engine trucks and two ladder trucks, as well as an air-conditioned rehab bus for exhausted firefighters.
The fire brought out the neighborhood. Some observers parked lawn chairs on their porches for a front-seat view. Children lined the curbs, entranced by the firefighters, hoses and smoke.
Sam Matthews, 25, was hanging out at Leverich Park for a family reunion when he smelled smoke, he said. He saw flames and called 911.
"It spread real quick, caught the blackberry bushes just like that," Matthews said.
While the firefighters worked, Interstate 5 was closed for a little less than an hour. Traffic was detoured to Interstate 205.
Alki Bluff burns
As the fire at Leverich Park died, firefighters poured water over their heads and rubbed ice cubes on their arms.
"It's just smoking hot out here," Vancouver Fire spokesman Jim Flaherty said.
Then, at 3:51 p.m., another fire broke out nearby. This one started across the freeway on a bluff known to residents as "Cardboard Hill."
This fire was remote, contained to an acre of Alki Bluff above Burnt Bridge Creek. The area is off Northwest 53rd Street, west of Hazel Dell Avenue.
The yellowed grass in the area was brittle-dry, crunching beneath firefighters' boots. The wind of 10 to 15 miles per hour may have felt cool on firefighters' necks, but it fanned the flames.
Four agencies were on the scene: Fire District 6, Vancouver Fire, Portland Fire Bureau and, later, the state Department of Natural Resources. They attacked from the top and bottom of the bluff.
Firefighters laid a large water supply line down 53rd Circle and used hoses to protect a home at 302 N.W. 53rd Circle. The fire came within 60 to 70 feet of that home.
Flaherty emphasized the need for homeowners to leave defensible spaces around homes — areas where vegetation is trimmed and fire can't easily spread to structures.
Jim Mains, a contractor who has lived for 32 years in the neighborhood, said residents became nervous as the fire spread up the hill toward their homes.
Some hosed down their yards and others collected belongings.
"The whole neighborhood was out; it was intense," Mains said.
Craig Brown of The Columbian contributed to this report.
