Baker City Herald, Ore.
(TNS)
July has been fiery in Northeastern Oregon.
Ferociously so.
The combustible combination of a record-breaking heat wave in its third week, possible arson incidents, and ill-timed storms that brought plentiful light but little rain, has spawned an unprecedented series of wildfires in the region.
The blazes had scorched more than 600,000 acres over eight counties as of Tuesday, July 23.
That’s almost 950 square miles, an area bigger than nine of Oregon’s 36 counties — Multnomah, Hood River, Columbia, Benton, Yamhill, Washington, Polk, Sherman and Clatsop.
Four fires have exceeded 100,000 acres, the threshold for “megafire” status.
Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek has invoked the state’s Conflagration Act for multiple fires, making dozens of firefighters available, including crews trained in protecting homes.
“For the sheer number of fires across Oregon, I haven’t seen it,” said Matt Howard, forester for the Oregon Department of Forestry’s Northeast District.
Howard has seen a lot of fires, and fire seasons.
This is his 38th season in the region.
“This is a season we will talk about for a long time,” Howard said on Monday, July 22.
Three of the megafires are human-caused and are under investigation:
• Falls Fire, Harney and Grant counties, 134,000 acres.
• Cow Valley, Malheur County, 133,000 acres.
• Lone Rock, Gilliam, Morrow and Wheeler counties, 117,000 acres.
Fire investigators and police are offering a monetary reward for information about who started the Cow Valley and several other fires early on July 11 in northern Malheur County near Highway 26 and Malheur Reservoir.
“Humans have been pretty productive at starting fires,” Howard said. “And then that shot of lighting we got didn’t help us at all.”
Much of that lightning battered the region on July 16 and 17, starting more than a dozen blazes, including some south of Pendleton that have spread across several thousand acres.
The list of lightning-sparked blazes includes the Durkee Fire, the biggest of the region’s megafires. A local resident, Terri Siddoway, watched the lightning bolt strike on the morning of July 17 near Durkee, an unincorporated town in Baker County about 25 miles southeast of Baker City.
Smoke rose from the desiccated rangeland just a moment later, Siddoway said.
The Durkee Fire has burned a 174,000 acres in Baker and Malheur counties. The blaze, propelled at times by gusty winds, has burned to the boundaries of the Cow Valley Fire.
Thunderstorm winds estimated at 50 mph pushed the Durkee Fire toward Interstate 84 and the city of Huntington on Sunday evening, July 21, prompting ODOT to close the freeway. The main arterial through Northeastern Oregon reopened the next morning, but a Level 3 — leave now — evacuation notice remained in effort for Huntington and several other areas near the fire.
Evacuation notices were also in effect for each of the other megafires, and for several other smaller blazes.
Lots of summer left
As troubling as the recent trend is, Howard notes that the fire season is less than a month old.
“We’re still a month from the heart of August, which historically is when we reach the peak of the season,” he said.
The rash of big fires, which is not limited to Northeastern Oregon, means almost all available firefighters are deployed, Howard said.
“The resource shortage is what’s hurting us right now, and has been for more than a week,” he said.
With regional management teams, and firefighters from across the nation, assigned to the megafires, Howard said crews from local, state and federal agencies are focusing on quickly attacking any new fires that start.
He hopes none of those are ignited by people.
Human-caused fires are particularly worrisome, Howard said, because fire managers can’t predict where, and when, they might start.
Lightning, by contrast, can be forecast fairly accurately, and strikes pinpointed by detectors, so crews can respond rapidly to new fires.
“We really need the public’s help,” Howard said. “We want folks to be hyperaware of their actions.”
State, federal and local agencies have imposed outright bans or restrictions on campfires, chain saw use and other activities that could spark fires.
Howard said he understands that people, including landowners whose property has been burned or threatened by fires, might be frustrated.
But he said agencies at all levels are striving to deal with this unprecedented series of big blazes.
“There’s a lot of folks working really hard right now,” he said. “It’s literally an all hands on deck proposition right now.”
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