West Coast Fire Thread

[R7ehr]

First smoky day of the summer here today. Yesterday a lightning storm came through and started 50 wildfires. Today two small towns Weston and Antelope were told to evacuate under ‘Level 3 Go Now!’ threat.
https://eastoregonian.com/2026/07/16/up ... 000-acres/
https://madraspioneer.com/2026/07/16/re ... to-go-now/

[Valerie]

First smoky day of the summer here today. Yesterday a lightning storm came through and started 50 wildfires. Today two small towns Weston and Antelope were told to evacuate under ‘Level 3 Go Now!’ threat.
https://eastoregonian.com/2026/07/16/up ... 000-acres/
https://madraspioneer.com/2026/07/16/re ... to-go-now/

The smoke from Canada fires was so thick her in Ohio we were under an advisory to not be outside. It didn’t smell like regular fires either and it was lime fog all day. The last 3 summers Canada fires have affected us like that but yoddd as y was the worse I’ve seen.

I hope people heed the warnings to evacuate!

[mike]

First smoky day of the summer here today. Yesterday a lightning storm came through and started 50 wildfires. Today two small towns Weston and Antelope were told to evacuate under ‘Level 3 Go Now!’ threat.
https://eastoregonian.com/2026/07/16/up ... 000-acres/
https://madraspioneer.com/2026/07/16/re ... to-go-now/

The smoke from Canada fires was so thick her in Ohio we were under an advisory to not be outside. It didn’t smell like regular fires either and it was lime fog all day. The last 3 summers Canada fires have affected us like that but yoddd as y was the worse I’ve seen.

Same here. Nasty smoky haze all day yesterday, and will still be here today the way it looks.

[R7ehr]

Went through our small town today, and could see from town a wildfire on a butte 15 miles or so to the west. Akawa Butte Fire.
That must be the fire our smoke is coming from. Not far away at all. Started about 27 hours ago, and grew to 20-30 acres in a couple hours, and in a couple more hours it was at 500 acres, and a couple hours after that hit 3,200 acres last night, less than 7 hours after starting. Wind is favorable now, so maybe it isn't growing fast, although you can see it moving across the hillside against the wind. Per Air Attack, they have requested 1 Lead Plane, 4 additional Large Airtankers (LATs), & 1 Very Large Airtanker (VLAT).

On the other side of us to the East, is the Brewer Fire about 15 miles away at 5,000 acres currently. It's been going for two days.

https://app.watchduty.org/

[R7ehr]

The Akawa Butte Fire is 6,200 acres and the Brewer Fire is 13,800 acres this morning.

From last night:

Wildfires continued to grow and evacuation zones expanded Friday across Central and Eastern Oregon following Wednesday's thunderstorms that sparked dozens of blazes.

Forward progress was stopped on two fires near Prineville -- the Pilot Fire and the Conant Fire. But the Coyote Fire grew to 3,000 acres and the Henry Fire near Paulina reached 2,500 acres.

The Brewer Fire in Jefferson County extended into Crook County, resulting in Level 1, 2 and 3 evacuations north of Prineville.

In Jefferson and Deschutes counties, the biggest concern was the Akawa Butte Fire, which grew to 5,000 acres southwest of Lake Billy Chinook. It prompted Level 1, 2 and 3 evacuations. The evacuation warnings stretched into Deschutes County for the first time.

A large number of storm cells passed through Central Oregon on July 15th 2026. Overall, the area covered by Central Oregon Fire Management Service and the Oregon Department of Forestry received more than 2000 lightning strikes. In the ensuing days, over 85 fires have dotted the landscape and stretched resources thin. Many of the starts remained under .1 acre, but winds, low humidities, and high temperatures have caused a portion of the incidents to establish into large fires.

The Central Oregon Type 3 IMT assumed command of 4 fires in the Twickenham area on Thursday: Red Rock, Camel Hump, Twickenham, and Crosswhite. An additional new start, Incident 502, has also been rolled into this command.

Today, three Complex Incident Management Teams in-briefed with local resources and will assume command of the remaining fires over the next 12 hours. These teams are Northwest Team 2, Northwest Team 10, and ODF CIMT 2. Each team is rostered with professionals who specialize in the various aspects of fighting fire: operational decisions and tactics, logistics, planning, finance, aviation, safety, and political/public engagement. In total, they add more than 300 personnel to the firefighting efforts in Central Oregon.

Fire updates as of this evening:

- The Cove Creek Fire, approximately 12,000 acres, started 1 mile East of the John Day Fossil Beds
- The Hopkin Fire, approximately 12,000 acres, Northwest of Condon
- The Porcupine Ridge Fire, approximately 20,000 acres, Southwest of Condon
- The Pilot Fire, 118 acres, at Milepost 13 on the Paulina Highway–FORWARD PROGRESS STOPPED
- The Akawa Butte Fire, approximately 5000 acres, southwest of Lake Billy Chinook
- The Brewer Fire, approximately 10,000 acres, East of the Brewer Reservoir
- The Wilcox Fire, approximately 3700 acres, Southeast of Kent
- The Coyote Fire, approximately 3000 acres, South of Post
- The Connant Fire, 105 acres, West of Post–FORWARD PROGRESS STOPPED
- The Parrish Fire, approximately 400 acres, South of Spray
- The Henry Fire, approximately 2500 acres, South of Paulina
- The Left Hand Fire, approximately 56 acres, 3 miles East of Spray
- The Deep Canyon Fire, approximately 6000 acres, West of Antelope
- The Pat’s Cabin Fire, approximately 1000 acres, West of Twickenham

[R7ehr]

not too smoky yesterday and today. Wind is blowing smoke in a direction that we are in a pocket of clean air and blue sky. We can see both fires at the same time and place from the highway.

Governor Tina Kotek has invoked the Emergency Conflagration Act for two fires in Central Oregon.

On Saturday morning, the declaration was made in response to Deschutes County's Akawa Butte Fire and Jefferson County's Brewer Fire.
…
The Conflagration Act declarations mean more statewide resources can be used to help battle the fires via the Oregon State Fire Marshal assigning Red Incident Management and task force teams to work alongside local and wildland crews.

[R7ehr]

More than 15,000 lightning strikes across Oregon and Washington sparked dozens of wildfires Wednesday and Thursday, setting the stage for a smoke-filled weekend across the region.

The lightning outbreak was spurred by a low-pressure system off the coast that pulled monsoon moisture away from California but pushed it over the Northwest, where the moisture manifested as thunderstorms. Summer lightning is frequent in the Cascade Mountains of the Pacific Northwest, but tens of thousands of strikes is uncommon.

At least 100 fires were burning across Washington and Oregon as of Friday morning, according to the Northwest Interagency Coordination Center. More blazes were likely smoldering undetected, but were expected to emerge amid windier weather this weekend, in an area that was suffering from moderate to extreme drought.


https://www.yahoo.com/news/weather-news ... 44537.html

[R7ehr]

Smoke has us really socked in now. Air Quality Index scale is 349.

Akawa Butte Fire to the West is 10,325 acres, and Brewer Fire to the East is 24,460 acres. We saw the red flames from both last night, off in the distance. Akawa is showing 3% contained, Brewer is showing 0%.

There really are a lot of fires burning here right now. The Crosswhite Fire/Rowe Creek Complex is at 128,000 acres with no containment reported. It is going to be a rough summer here. So many large fires right now.

[R7ehr]

Oregon’s wildfire season has ramped up in a major way this week, with 26 major wildfires burning, around 1,000 people on evacuation orders and much of the state covered in smoke.

Five homes have been lost to fires and more than 420,000 acres already burned — more than all of last year. Oregon is currently the top priority for firefighters nationally, and has nearly maxed out on its number of state firefighters.

The situation could get worse — or better — soon.

On July 22, thunderstorms are forecast to pass over much of Oregon, the remnants of a tropical storm from the Baja. The thunderstorms are expected to bring some rain but also lightning, which could start additional fires.

“This is definitely one of the turning points for the fire season, because it could be super beneficial if it comes with a lot of rain and not as much lightning, but it could also have a lot of negative implications because of the impact that lightning can have in the short and long term,” National Weather Service meteorologist Rebecca Muessle said. “And the thing is, we won’t know until we’re in it.”

[mike]

Here in the east, all the days with hazy smoke from the Canadian fire apparently cost us some flavor and sweetness in the melons we had at produce auction today. Melons need that direct, hot sun to sweeten up.