The nation's top-priority fire rages four miles from the Chetco Brewing Company and the brewery has been under a get-out evacuation order for about a week.

No matter. The beer must be brewed. Firefighters understand that.

"The National Guard has been really good to us," Chetco Brewing co-owner Alex Carr-Frederick said Friday, explaining the need to drive past safety checkpoints, "because we've had to check fermenters."

The brewery sits in the path of the Chetco Bar fire in an unincorporated area outside the southwest Oregon coastal community of 6,500.

Several outer areas have been under the top evacuation warning -- Level 3 -- for days, but the city proper had escaped an evacuation notice until Thursday.

That's when the fire moved about 5 miles northeast of Brookings and authorities issued the lowest-level alert (prepare to leave -- Level 1) for town residents.

The declaration was the latest indication of the seriousness of the Chetco fire, which authorities now rank as the No. 1 firefighting priority in the country.

Gov. Kate Brown arrived in Brookings later Friday and received a briefing from fire officials. She thanked firefighters for their work and residents for their cooperation. She urged people to remain ready to move at a moment's notice.

"Fire situations can get dangerous very quickly and we need everyone in this community to remain on their toes and to remain extremely cautious," Brown said.

Authorities were especially concerned about the potential impact of the wind-whipping "Chetco Effect" – a weather pattern that brings warm, dry air from inland down through valleys and out to sea. Similar conditions are blamed for vastly expanding the size of the fire last weekend.

The National Weather Service has issued a fire weather watch for the fire area, with strong, gusty winds (10-15 mph with gusts up to 25mph) and low relative humidity expected from 7 p.m. Friday through 11 a.m. Saturday.

Press briefing in Brookings on the Chetco Bar Fire Posted by Governor Kate Brown on Friday, August 25, 2017

The fire, believed to have been caused by lightning, began July 12 on a quarter acre. It has grown to 102,333 acres and nearly 1,400 people are fighting the fire.

And as Carr-Frederick and her husband, Michael Frederick, strive to ensure their business survives, they're also looking out for those firefighters.

In addition to their brewery, the couple operate the Chetco Brewing Company Tap Room in town. The pub has a popular pay-it-forward-style "Gift a Beer" promotion, where customers can buy a $5 beer for somebody to be redeemed in the future.

Two days ago, the pub launched a Gift a Beer exclusively for firefighters, at $4 each.

"We've had 240 beers purchased online," Carr-Frederick said, noting that buyers have been as far away as Germany, Texas and Minnesota. Only 11 beers have been claimed thus far.

Firefighters have told her the brewery's location -- next to the Chetco River -- makes it likely to survive. Nevertheless, the firefighters also have mentioned a variety of measures that could be taken to ensure the survival of the 900-square-foot brewery that now holds about 450 gallons of beer.

The prognosis was somewhat comforting for the brewery because it's preparing its entry this weekend to meet a deadline for the upcoming Great American Beer Festival in October in Denver.

Carr-Frederick said she's most concerned about people living in elderly care facilities in Brookings as well as animal shelters.

"Where are they going to go?" she wondered.

Earlier Friday, Brookings City Manager Gary Milliman noted that preparations for a possible evacuation have been underway in the community near the California border for more than a week.

That has included "getting our water system ready, making sure the water storage capacity is maintained at the highest possible level," Milliman said. "We are encouraging citizens to conserve water and to take note that there is a threat."

Milliman praised the coordinated firefighting team of the Oregon State Fire Marshall, U.S. Forest Service, Oregon Department of Forestry and Coos Fire Protection Association. "They're working well," he said.

Milliman said the Level 1 evacuation notice encourages residents "to work on things like developing a family emergency plan and thinking about where they might go if they had to evacuate and how they would secure their home."

He also said he has seen several examples of neighbors helping neighbors, particularly residents opening their homes to people living in unincorporated areas who have been evacuated from their homes.

"I have observed many travel trailers parked on property around town that are occupied by evacuees," he wrote.

--Allan Brettman

503-294-5900

@allanbrettman