Oregon Public Broadcasting

Fire crews are now in the fourth day of the Rooster Rock Fire just south of Sisters. Officials say the fire is now 30 percent contained. While the fire seems to be moving away from homes in the area, wind gusts up to 25 miles per hour are causing it grow rapidly. David Nogueras traveled to the fireline, and reports on what he found there.

David Nogueras / OPB

Jinny Pitman on a dirt road that serves as a containment line

Fire officials estimate the perimeter of the fire to be 6,000 acres, up 25 percent from Wednesday afternoon.

Some of that growth, however is due to a massive burnout operation. That's where firefighters start fires on the inside of the perimeter to consume unburned fuels.

Jinny Pitman takes me for tour along the southern flank of the Rooster Rock Fire. 

She's in charge of a two mile stretch of dirt road that serves as a containment line. There are now nearly 1,000 people working in various capacities on this fire.

Pitman oversees 80 firefighters all on the lookout for flare-ups along the line.

Jinny Pitman: "Actually the fire behavior just started to pick up so with the wind shift and the smoke going over the road into the green there's a big concern. There's potential for me to just have to turn around and just have to abandon whatever we're doing if things start to pick up any more than they are right now."

David Nogueras / OPB

Flames rise up from Ponderosa pines near Sisters, OR

Across the landscape smoke trickles out of blackened tree stumps and holes in the earth. But from time to time, giant towers of flame will shoot up from the giant ponderosa pines before disappearing into the smoke.

Pitman says the worry is that embers from those fires will carry across the road to the unburned area, leaving the crew with flames on more than one side.

Jinny Pitman: "What we don't want to do is pick up any spots on this side of the road and if any of the spots get bigger than two people can handle, then we've got problems."

With the winds picking up, Pitman says it's time to leave. She throws her pickup in reverse and begins to back up.

As she looks over her shoulder, I ask what her number one concern for tonight is.

Keeping all her firefighters safe, she says.