Odessa dodges fiery bullet

With extremely hot temperatures in the preceding days, the Odessa area should probably be considered lucky to have had only one fire which was contained after about five hours.

With all the news about the Carlton Complex fire in the north Cascades and the Buzzard Complex in eastern Oregon, apparently both started by lightning in many places and now being treated as fire complexes, people are a bit on edge and are following the news closely. The weather has been hot and windy, so the fires are almost impossible to contain.

As of now, the weather is cooler and there is a light rain falling.

All of the residents downwind of the Carlton Complex have been dealt smoke and ash even necessitating a quick clean-up at the pool before it could open last Wednesday.

Rural fire chief, Roger Sebesta, reported there was a fire east of Odessa, near Nemo, on Saturday, which burned between 600 and 1,000 acres.

The Harrington fire department, plus Lee Praetorius with a tractor and disc and Rick Walter with a tractor helped put out the fire which took about five hours.

The fire was started by a combine and burned stubble, sage and CRP land.

Sebesta also reported two fires along the railroad where railroad ties caught fire which are a common occurence and easily extinguished.