Large and volatile wildfires burning across Central Oregon have destroyed homes, threatened thousands more and blanketed the region with smoke.
The blazes have consumed more than 1 million acres in Oregon — and about a month earlier than the state’s wildfire season usually peaks.
Earlier this month, a flurry of lightning strikes ignited tinderbox-like conditions across a Central Oregon landscape parched from a record-low snowpack.
“This year was poised to be a very active fire season, and it’s currently proving (to be),” Jonathan Harrell, public information officer for the Oregon State Fire Marshal’s Incident Management Red Team, told the Source.
Not only are the fires burning a large swath of land, but they are doing so in dramatic fashion. Central Oregon has seen multiple incidents of smaller fires merging into one larger blaze, along with multiple pyro cumulus clouds, which form when fires become so hot they create their own weather system.
Fire management teams say they’ve thwarted major threats of several unruly blazes in the last week, but as of Tuesday the Bench Fire continued to burn on the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs reservation, forcing thousands of evacuations and straining infrastructure.
The blaze started as two smaller, separate fires totaling fewer than 10,000 acres as of a Sunday morning report. The following evening, they had merged and quadrupled in size. The fire remained at 0% containment as of Tuesday.
Dennis White III, tribal council chairman for the tribe, issued a State of Emergency for the Warm Springs nation on July 25.
“First and foremost, I want to send prayers to our community, our people, and our Nation,” White said in a statement posted to Facebook. “My thoughts are especially with the families who have lost their homes during these devastating fires.”
Edward R. Henderson, the Secretary, Treasurer and CEO for the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, speaking on The Daily on Oregon Public Radio on Tuesday, said that more than 3,800 residents have evacuated while 6,000 people are sheltering in place as 41 residences have been threatened and six lost. Some residents tried to evacuate when the Level 3 Go Now alert went out on Saturday, but were forced back to their homes because of the closure of Highway 26 when the fire jumped the highway.
On Tuesday, the CTWS announced the creation of the Wildfire Recovery Fund, welcoming financial donations to help with “immediate needs” for those affected by the Bench Fire. Additionally, donations of goods and volunteer assistance is needed, although they recommend those be coordinated through Tribal contacts listed on the donation form. Earlier this week, the CTWS issued boil-water and water-conservation notices, as a preventive measure, Henderson said, and not because there was any “risk to health” currently. He said residents running sprinklers and hoses, trying to guard against fire spread, put a “drain” on the water supply.
“We’re trying to get ahead of it and be more proactive,” he told The Daily. “The more we can get preemptive on things, the better we’ll be in the long run.”
Turning the corner on Akawa Butte fire
The Akawa Butte Fire, burning to the north and east of Sisters, was about 6% contained across 27,000 acres Tuesday evening, according to the State of Oregon Fires Dashboard.
“We’re getting a really good handle on the surrounding of the fire and getting some good depth on those fire lines,” said Harrell, the fire marshal spokesperson. “Our wildland partners and structural partners are working really well in concert to ensure that we’ve got great defensible spaces around primary and other structures. The wildland crews are doing a phenomenal job of creating initial depth on the fire line and then creating secondary contingency lines.”
“Megafire” forms north of Prineville
Fire officials announced Tuesday morning that several large fires had merged into one gigantic blaze burning nearly 300,000 acres between Prineville and Fossil. It’s labeled the Rowe Creek Complex.
As the fires merged, the heat was so intense that crews weren’t able to fly over aircraft equipped with infrared for mapping, said Brian Longoria, a public information officer with the Oregon Department of Forestry Incident Management Team 3.
Still, Longoria said crews have had success in keeping the fire from moving south toward Prineville. On the other side of the fire, the perimeter is mostly controlled, said Madison Anderson, a public information officer with the Northwest Interagency Management Team 2.
The fire is 33% contained as of Tuesday.
Crews continue to work
Across the state, more than 4,800 people are in a Level 3 Go Now evacuation status, with more than 9,000 people in a Level 2 Get Set status, and more than 9,000 at a Level 1 Be Ready status.
Harrell said dry, hot weather has accelerated some fires, prompting movement of crews to different fire sites.
“We’re providing resources to them so that they can work to hopefully get ahead of those fires and create containment,” Harrell said. “As we begin to get a handle on one fire, we keep track of where crews are on their deployment cycle, and we’re redeploying them to an area of need. A great example of this was earlier this month with the Olive Butte Fire. We had crews there outside of Granite [Oregon], and as we began to get a handle on that fire, we surged some of those resources north to the lower Dry Creek Fire as well as west toward what is the Rowe Complex.”
The Olive Butte Fire, impacting both Grant and Baker counties in eastern Oregon, is currently spread across 3,054 acres and at 60% containment.
Incident commanders are in constant communication with the State Fire Marshall’s office, the Oregon Department of Forestry, and regional partners “to get the right resources as quickly as they can to a fire,” Harrell said.
“There’s a lot of fire on the landscape,” he added. “It’s been a very busy fire season for us thus far, and it’s not even August 1 yet. The conditions with respect to fuel and the fact that it’s summer with dry, hot, windy conditions, we’re doing our best to prepare for what might come.”
Harrell said the public can help, too.
“The best thing people can do right now is stay engaged with their local resources, including their Office of Emergency Resource Management at the county level and with their local fire jurisdictions,” Harrell said. “Stay apprised and abreast of weather conditions. And have a conversation with your local fire jurisdiction about education and defensible spaces.”
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