A rollover crash at a major intersection in Crooked River Ranch led to additional problems when residents were evacuating Monday to escape the Alder Spring Fire. (Courtesy)

As the Alder Spring Fire approached, it took more than 45 minutes for residents of Crooked River Ranch to drive out of the sprawling rural housing development after they were told to evacuate.

The fire, which grew to 3,442 acres Wednesday and remains 0% contained, began Monday on the west side of Whychus Creek and quickly grew due to strong winds. The fire prompted Level 3 — GO NOW — evacuations in both Jefferson and Deschutes counties, including much of Crooked River Ranch.

Lt. Jason Evan from the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office said that while he was on the ground assisting, everything was “typical” for what local authorities would expect of a rural evacuation effort. 

“It’s hard getting a lot of people out all at once when you only have (limited) exits.” Evan said. “It just depends on when they get their alerts to leave, and if they want to leave, and when they decide to leave — there’s just a lot of contributing factors.”

One problem authorities often face when trying to evacuate rural areas is that people simply don’t want to go.

“They just assume they know more than we do, and they don’t leave. Then, all of a sudden, they see the fire coming up over the hill and everybody leaves at the same time. The roads are only two lane roads and that tends to clog it up,” Evans said. 

When evacuation notices were sent out, there were three evacuation routes out of Crooked River Ranch. Some of those routes were used more heavily than others, Evan said, which is what contributed to some of the congestion and confusion reported Monday night. A rollover crash at the intersection of SW Shad Road and Mustang Road, a main thoroughfare for much of the ranch, caused further traffic slowdowns.

The most-used route out of the area was via Chinook Road, the main egress out of Crooked River Ranch. In addition, there was an exit through Quail Road that residents favored less. To compensate, the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office put up detour signs to encourage people to use the alternate route.

Although Lower Bridge Road is partially closed as the Oregon Department of Transportation works to construct a new on and off ramp for U.S. Highway 97, ODOT public information officer Kacey Davey confirmed that egress out of the area onto the highway was not blocked by construction.

“Traffic was exiting Lower Bridge Way onto U.S. Highway 97 without issue. We had crews staged nearby to assist with traffic if needed, but it didn’t get to that point where they needed to intervene,” Davey said. “We would have done whatever was needed.”

Residents who choose not to leave, or return to their homes before evacuation orders have been lifted, also cause congestion. If you don’t plan to leave, the best thing to do is to stay put inside your residence, Evan said. He said sometimes people return to areas under evacuation orders to grab a forgotten item, turn on generators to keep food from spoiling, or just for blatant rubbernecking. 

“We understand that stuff, but when you’re just coming back to look at the fire or to take stuff that you don’t necessarily need, it just complicates things,” Evan said. “When you’ve got residents just wanting to sit and look and take pictures to post on social media, it makes it that much harder for us to do our jobs and then we have to get involved. It just complicates things that are already complicated.”

As of Wednesday, Level 3 evacuations remain in place for the northwest portions of Crooked River Ranch and areas north of the Deschutes county line, east of Wychus Creek and west of Crooked River Ranch. Level 2 evacuation warnings are in place for the west side of Crooked River Ranch and Level 1 warnings are in place for eastern portions of Crooked River Ranch. 

Reach out to the Crooked River Ranch Fire Hall for more information (541-923-6776). A temporary evacuation point has been established in Redmond at the Highland Baptist Church with a large animal shelter at the Deschutes County Fairgrounds.