West Coast Fire Thread

[RZehr]

Last night during church service a thunderstorm rolled through. Lightning started several fires. The Elk Lane fire started, and threatened a bunch of homes and a couple of the families from church. It is now a couple thousand acres. Power was out. Last night they moved equipment and trailers etc. out of danger. Turned on sprinklers. Police put the area on Level 3, ‘Go Now’. They stopped by, but were not forcing people to leave.
Fire was being bombed by big jets with retardant. Made it through the night. Today the fire came right up around one of the homes. Sounds like nothing was lost except some fence posts. Ashes are falling from the sky. I went over this evening and put up some sprinklers at house in line of the fire.
I counted fire trucks from at least three fire departments from Portland area, about 3 hours away. Interesting that they came from so far.
https://www.centraloregondaily.com/news ... e7cd1.html

[RZehr]

https://www.madraspioneer.com/news/elk- ... a323f.html

[Szdfan]

Last night during church service a thunderstorm rolled through. Lightning started several fires. The Elk Lane fire started, and threatened a bunch of homes and a couple of the families from church. It is now a couple thousand acres. Power was out. Last night they moved equipment and trailers etc. out of danger. Turned on sprinklers. Police put the area on Level 3, ‘Go Now’. They stopped by, but were not forcing people to leave.
Fire was being bombed by big jets with retardant. Made it through the night. Today the fire came right up around one of the homes. Sounds like nothing was lost except some fence posts. Ashes are falling from the sky. I went over this evening and put up some sprinklers at house in line of the fire.
I counted fire trucks from at least three fire departments from Portland area, about 3 hours away. Interesting that they came from so far.
https://www.centraloregondaily.com/news ... e7cd1.html

Oh wow. I’m glad that the fence posts are the only thing that was lost.

Whenever we have major fires, FD from all over will come help.

[RZehr]

Elk Lane fire is again moving and growing. Jets sure are keeping busy. It is impressive watching them. One of our families can’t be at their place. They have no electricity. Wind is picking up unfortunately.

[RZehr]

Last evening we had a lightning storm come through. Lost power.
Then this afternoon a plume of smoke about a mile east. Apparently the lightning started a fire smoldering that took about a day to grow into a wildfire. Very quickly grew to a few hundred acres. They got onto it very quickly with attack aircraft. A helicopter and two jet powered planes. And a dozer and other equipment.


We were given evacuation notice for the first time. Here is what it says:
This is a wildfire emergency alert from JCSO. Level 3 - GO NOW! Evacuate immediately.

Level 3 - GO NOW means Leave Immediately!

There is extreme danger in your area - evacuate now. Leave without delay, it is unsafe to stay and threatens the safety of you, your family, and emergency responders. Your life could be in great danger. Emergency services personnel may not be available to help you if you choose to stay.

Do not stop to gather your belongings or protect your home. Follow your emergency plan.

Leave as fast as safely possible. Drive carefully. Turn on your headlights. Follow traffic safety warnings and instructions from local authorities. Use TripCheck.com or call 511 for road closure information.

If you need emergency shelter, call 211 or 1-866-698-6155, visit 211info.org, or text your zip code to 898211. TTY: dial 711 and call 1-866-698-6155. Language interpreters are available by phone. Text is available Monday - Friday, 9 a.m. - 5 p.m., in Spanish and English.

After you evacuate:

Do not return to the area until public safety officials announce the area is safe.
Continue to check for updates through local city and county websites, social media, TV, and radio. {Local Resource for more Info}
Once you are safe, check with friends and family.
Visit wildfire.oregon.gov for more info.

We are now at Level 1 Be Ready To Go.

I’m not concerned. It is now contained, and we have a great defensive line around our place. This fire is called the Ochoco Fire.

The Elk Lane fire is under control, after burning for a week, and 5,000+ acres.

[Ernie]

They got onto it very quickly with attack aircraft. A helicopter and two jet powered planes. And a dozer and other equipment.


We were given evacuation notice for the first time. Here is what it says:
This is a wildfire emergency alert from JCSO. Level 3 - GO NOW! Evacuate immediately.

Level 3 - GO NOW means Leave Immediately!

Wow! So some fires they fight immediately? And other fires they let burn for awhile before getting serious about fighting it?

[RZehr]

They got onto it very quickly with attack aircraft. A helicopter and two jet powered planes. And a dozer and other equipment.


We were given evacuation notice for the first time. Here is what it says:
This is a wildfire emergency alert from JCSO. Level 3 - GO NOW! Evacuate immediately.

Level 3 - GO NOW means Leave Immediately!

Wow! So some fires they fight immediately? And other fires they let burn for awhile before getting serious about fighting it?

Yes. I suppose it depends on things like availability of equipment in part, but I think it largely depends on what is under threat. In this case, the update from Central OR Fire noted that “transmission lines are threatened”. These are high voltage lines going across the state. It also depends on houses being threatened.

Most people believe - and support to some degree - that these low intensity fires are good for the land. And are happy to see the brush and other invasive plants, and juniper trees gone. This gives things a fresh start. So as long as the fires are just burning scrubland, let it do its thing. These scrubland fires are quite different in terms of heat, and smoke, and destruction, from a real forest fire.

We did not evacuate yesterday.

Looks like this one is got under control in about 7 hours. 260-500 acres.
About 5-7 years ago there was a fire in about the exact same place. That one was put out real quick too. There are some hills there. Maybe that is why lightning is striking there.

https://www.centraloregondaily.com/news ... 88033.html

[RZehr]

I read in the newspaper that the Durkee fire traveled 18 miles in one day. And we are at about 1.5 million acres burned so far this year.

[Ken]

I read in the newspaper that the Durkee fire traveled 18 miles in one day. And we are at about 1.5 million acres burned so far this year.

How much of it is forest versus rangeland? Any idea?

I just drove back from Wyoming this past weekend on I-84 and there was a lot of recently burnt rangeland east of Baker City to the Idaho border. But none of it was forest land. Mostly just cheatgrass and sage brush I'm guessing.

[RZehr]

I read in the newspaper that the Durkee fire traveled 18 miles in one day. And we are at about 1.5 million acres burned so far this year.

How much of it is forest versus rangeland? Any idea?

I just drove back from Wyoming this past weekend on I-84 and there was a lot of recently burnt rangeland east of Baker City to the Idaho border. But none of it was forest land. Mostly just cheatgrass and sage brush I'm guessing.

Probably the majority of that one is rangeland. I was up in the big Battlemountain fire area last week, and that one seems to be largely timberland.

While the fires have been more rampant than other years, it seems like the air here isn’t as smoky as some years. I think this is due to wind obviously, but probably mostly due to a lack of huge, heavy forest fires in British Columbia this summer.