Oregon fire is the largest burning in the US. Thunderstorms and high winds are exacerbating it
Associated Press
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Powerful winds and hundreds of lightning strikes from thunderstorms rattled the Oregon-Idaho border Wednesday afternoon, pushing wildfires that include an Oregon fire which is already the largest active blaze in the nation.
The Durkee Fire, burning near the Oregon-Idaho border about 130 miles (209 kilometers) west of Boise, Idaho, caused the closure of a stretch of Interstate 84 again Wednesday. Amid rapidly forming storms in the afternoon, the blaze crossed the interstate near the town of Huntington, home to about 500 people. It also merged with the Cow Valley Fire, another large blaze that had been burning nearby, Gov. Tina Kotek said.
“The wildfires in Eastern Oregon have scaled up quickly,” Kotek said in a news release Wednesday evening, calling it a dynamic situation. “We are facing strong erratic winds over the region that could impact all fires. Rain is not getting through. Some communities do not have power.”
She said she had deployed the National Guard to the region.
The nearly 400-square-mile (1036-square-kilometer) blaze had prompted the evacuation of Huntington on Sunday, and on Wednesday city officials posted on Facebook that people remaining in town, especially those with “major health issues,” needed to leave their homes because of wildfire smoke and the lack of power.
The National Weather Service in Boise said the storms were capable of producing wind gusts up to 70 mph with blowing dust reducing visibility. A storm about 44 miles (71 kilometers) northwest of Huntington near Baker City on Wednesday afternoon had recorded a wind gust of 66 mph (106 kph), the weather service said.
Wind, lightning and heavy rain was expected that could cause flash flooding and debris flows in recently burned areas, the sheriff’s office said on Facebook.
The Oregon State Fire Marshal’s office also mobilized nearly 500 firefighters to help protect communities that could be threatened by wildfires on Wednesday.
The major electricity utility in the region, Idaho Power, warned customers to prepare for possible outages, and by late Wednesday afternoon, nearly 7,000 customers were without electricity, the utility said. The utility also cut power to customers in the Boise foothills, citing extreme weather and wildfire risk.
More than 60 significant fires are burning in Oregon and Washington alone, and Oregon has been plagued with hundreds of lightning strikes from thunderstorms in recent days that have started new blazes in bone-dry vegetation.
The smoke from the Durkee Fire in Oregon was choking the air in Boise and beyond. An air quality warning was in effect for the entire region on Wednesday.
Patrick Nauman, the owner of Weiser Classic Candy in the small town of Weiser, Idaho, near the Oregon border, said driving into town Wednesday morning was “like driving into a fog bank, because it’s so thick and low to the road.”
Nauman’s shop is on the main intersection in town and is typically a popular spot to stop for lunch or a sugar fix, but customer traffic has dropped by half in the past few days as thick smoke and triple-digit temperatures dogged the region.
“Yesterday you could smell it, taste it, it just kind of hung in the back of your throat,” Nauman said of the smoke.
Mike Cantin, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Boise, said cooler air moving into the region Wednesday evening could stoke the Durkee and other fires. A red flag warning was in effect, and the area has been suffering through a heat wave, including many days over 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius).
“With these winds showing up today, every little spark could get out of hand very easily. It could be a really hazardous situation very fast,” Cantin said. “Don’t light anything on fire, and be very careful around grass.”
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Associated Press writer Lisa Baumann contributed from Bellingham, Washington.
