Firefighters battled extreme heat, steep terrain and spreading flames to keep the Lebanon-area fire from reaching another structure

By Tatum Todd
oregonlive.com

LEBANON, Ore. — Firefighters narrowly thwarted a three-alarm fire on Saturday afternoon after it engulfed a mobile home in flames, burned through nearby vegetation and forced over a dozen people to evacuate.

The Lebanon Fire District said in a statement that the fire started around 2:30 p.m. in the 40,000 block of Hilltop Drive, in a rural area already at risk of wildfire due to sustained hot and dry conditions.

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By the time firefighters arrived — with two water tenders in tow due to the lack of fire hydrants in the area — the fire had completely engulfed the mobile home and was “rapidly spreading” through the brush and towards another structure, officials said.

As Lebanon Fire District firefighters attacked the blaze alongside Oregon Department of Forestry crews, the Linn County Sheriff’s Office worked to evacuate 18 people who lived in the area, officials said.

But the fire continued to spread, officials said, prompting firefighters to call in a second and third alarm in order to bring in more people and equipment as crews battled the flames.

In addition to the Lebanon and Oregon Department of Forestry crews, firefighters from the Sweet Home, Brownsville, Halsey-Shedd, Albany, Scio and Tangent fire departments and districts responded to the scene, along with eight brush vehicles, four engines, two medic units with their assigned firefighters, seven water tenders, two chief officers, and one dozer.

Despite the extreme heat and rough conditions — including steep terrain and blackberry thickets — fire crews managed to stall the fire’s advance towards the nearby structure within 20 minutes, officials said.

An Oregon Department of Forestry firefighter then used a bulldozer to dig out a fire line to contain the blaze, and by 5:30 p.m. fire officials deemed the fire under control enough to lift evacuation orders for the neighborhood.

Firefighters stomped out the last hot spots around 8 p.m. No other structures besides the mobile home were damaged, and the cause of the fire is under investigation.

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