AROUND OREGON: Firefighters brace for lightning as wildfires grow, taxing crews

Oregon is on fire.

From the Cascade slopes in southern Oregon to scrubby rangeland in eastern Oregon, fire crews on Saturday were tasked to 90 wildfires that have covered more than 400,000 acres.

They do so anticipating a weather forecast for continued hot weather, with temperatures in some places reaching more than 100. Wind is expected to be a factor through the day as well.

But more worrying is expected lightning, which forecasters say will come Sunday into Monday over large portions of the state with little to no rain.

“The risk for significant fire is very high,” according to the national wildfire website. “With fire danger as high as it is, multiple ignitions from lightning will challenge initial attack.”

Gov. Tina Kotek warned Oregonians of what’s to come.

“It’s going to be a long wildfire season,” the governor said in speaking with reporters on Friday, July 20.

Kotek and state fire managers urged Oregonians to do all they could to not be the cause of new fires.

Kyle Williams, deputy director for fire operations for the Oregon Department of Forestry, said in the briefing with the governor that there have been fewer fires started by people this season – but the fires they did cause are burning more acres. The state’s landscape dried out earlier than usual.

Kotek and others urged Oregonians to pay attention to evacuation orders, to be ready if there is a fire in their area, and to sign up for alerts to be directly notified of a threat.

The governor said people shouldn’t always wait for a government alert in the form of a “Go” notice, a Level 3 evacuation notice that calls for people to leave immediately.

“If you don’t feel safe, don’t wait,” she said.

Across the state, thousands of people have reason to be on edge.

As of Saturday morning, more than 11,000 people were under evacuation notices with 2,000 under orders get out now.

Those orders have covered huge expanses of Oregon in thinly populated areas.

And the wildfires are threatening some of the state’s smallest and most remote communities. The town of Spray in Wheeler County is home to a popular Memorial Day rodeo and a jump-off spot for those floating the John Day River. Authorities directed the community of 140 or so to evacuate on Friday as winds pushed the growing Lone Rock Fire.

People in communities like Izee and Monument and Ukiah did what they could to get out of harm’s way or be ready to do so. Outside Monument, Silent Wave Horse Rescue became a fire refuge. Horses were being trailered to the nonprofit’s compound, already hosting six pigs rescued days earlier from a ranch facing imminent threat.

So far, the state is living with what are termed “mega” or “catastrophic” blazes – fires that grow to more than 100,000 acres.

The first was the Cow Valley Fire, which burned more than 200 square miles of grazing range north of Vale Oregon. Fire crews have containment line around more than 80% of a fire perimeter measured Friday at 158 miles. The fire, which authorities say may have been deliberately set, burned 133,000 acres – Oregon’s largest fire in the current season.

In neighboring territory between Burns and John Day, the Falls Fire continues with erratic behavior that so far has injured nine people and destroyed 13 homes. Details on the losses weren’t immediately available but fire officials expected another tough day on a fire that as of Friday had burned more than 117,000 acres.

“Forecasted weather will support challenging fire behavior today and into the weekend and will support large fire growth,” according to the federal wildfire incident website. “Fire is impacting multiple critical values to be protected. Livestock, private land, primary residences, Hwy 395, major power transmission lines, timber resources.”

The highway reference is to U.S. Highway 395, a key route that runs north-south from border to border in the eastern part of Oregon. A 40-mile stretch of that highway is closed south of Pendleton as a string of lightning-caused fires burn out of control, prompting evacuations.

Oregon fire officials are throwing enormous resources into the fire battles, from hotshot crews to swarms of air tankers, from single-engine airplanes to lumbering jetliner-sized craft. They are coating thousands and thousands of acres with retardant and often are the prime tool fire managers have to slow the advance of wildfires, especially in steep and often inaccessible terrain.

Fire managers have counted on rural fire districts and rangeland fire protection associations to help. Those crews of volunteer ranchers and loggers and business owners often work with hand-me-down equipment passed on by other agencies.

The Oregon Department of the State Fire Marshal has also tapped into fire agencies around the state. These task forces roll out from city and county fire services such as Marion County Fire District 1, the Gresham Fire Department and the Gaston Fire Department, often driving traveling hundreds of miles and then getting to work. They bring tankers, brush rigs and city-style fire engines, protecting homes and structures.

Kotek has so far declared five conflagrations, clearing the way for those task forces to respond. This season, the state has dispatched 23 tasks forces consisting of 305 firefighters, 92 engines and 23 water tenders.

That hasn’t been enough.

State officials have asked for and received help from other states. California sent three strike teams with 80 firefighters to help protect homes at risk in the Falls Fire and Washington state also is sending crews.

Already, according to Kotek, firefighter help has come from Idaho, Montana, Oklahoma, Texas, Georgia and New Mexico.

“More is expected in the coming days,” she said.

And costs mount every day.

Three fires each so far have cost more than $15 million in firefighting expenses, according to the federal wildfire website. They include the Salt Creek Free northeast of Medford that is nearly contained, the Larch Creek Fire south of The Dalles that is also nearly contained and the Falls Fire. The bills mount for everything from retardant for tankers to fuel for trucks to food for firefighters working long shifts, day and night.

Kotek said the state has reserves in its emergency budget for fire costs.

“It’s going to be expensive,” she said.