Thunderstorms bring dozens of new wildfires

Firefighters have responded to almost 50 new wildfires since Thursday morning, with the majority of those occurring east of Bend as the storms tracked from the southern part of the state, northeast through the High Desert and the Ochoco National Forest, officials said Friday.

Here’s the rest of the morning update from the Central Oregon Interagency Dispatch Center.

Rain helped significantly yesterday, with some areas receiving over an inch of rain; however, some locations along the edge of the storm path received little or no rain. Almost all of the fires this week have been held to less than 1/2 acre, with most stopped as single-tree fires.

Firefighters are responding to a new incident about 5 miles southwest of the Grant County town Dayville.

The Battle Creek Fire was reported at 5:30 last night and is burning in a mix of pine and brush. The fire is estimated at 100 acres and a Type 3 team is being assigned to manage this incident.

Firefighters will be challenged by limited access, narrow canyons and areas with heavy dead and downed wood.

The rain assisted firefighters on the Sheep Mountain Fire burning near Mitchell, and the fire is 15% contained, with full containment expected tomorrow. The fire remains at 70 acres.

Firefighters will be positioned around Central Oregon today to respond to additional new starts from yesterday’s storm, as well as respond to new fires from the next round of storms expected this afternoon.