BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) — With the recent cooling weather, local fire departments, the US Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management, and Oregon Department of Forestry agreed that many local areas may enter into the burn season. The Central Oregon Fire Chiefs Association announced that Tuesday will be the official start to when most local
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The Lookout Fire closure area was reduced Friday due to cooler, wetter weather and successful firefighting and suppression repair efforts, reopening access to some popular recreation sites in the McKenzie corridor. But the rain also brings slick, muddy forest roads, prompting limits and caution.
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Two days of significant rainfall have aided efforts to shift work on five Willamette National Forest wildfires from suppression to repair on the lines.
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SPRINGFIELD, Ore. (KTVZ) — Due to recent rainfall and cooler temperatures, the Willamette National Forest is on Wednesday rescinding public use restrictions, lowering the fire danger level to “low,” and reducing the Industrial Fire Precaution Level to IFPL I.
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Deschutes National Forest firefighters plan to implement understory prescribed burn operations across all three ranger districts this fall, officials said Tuesday, outlining areas of the planned projects, with specifics to come later.
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Wildfires fueled by climate change have ravaged communities from Maui to the Mediterranean this summer, killing many people, exhausting firefighters and fueling demand for new solutions. Enter artificial intelligence.
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Cooler weather and rain is helping reduce fire behavior on several large, weeks-old blazes around Oregon, but new blazes continue to emerge, including one that has burned about 3,000 acres on the Klamath Marsh National Wildlife Refuge and the Fremont-Winema National Forest.
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Autumn rainfall and cooler temperatures have reduced fire behavior, prompting the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office on Monday to drop all evacuation levels tied to the Petes Lake Fire west of Elk Lake, though forest closures remain in effect.
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An Emergency Response Team of resource specialists who began field surveys and an assessment of the Bedrock Fire burned areas earlier this month released its findings on Thursday, showing that more than 60 percent of the area saw low or very low soil burn severity.
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With increasingly cooler weather and various levels of precipitation across Central Oregon, the Deschutes and Ochoco National Forests, Crooked River National Grassland and the Prineville District Bureau of Land Management will drop public use (fire) restrictions, effective at 12:01 a.m. Saturday.
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Due to moderating weather conditions leading to decreased Petes Lake Fire activity, the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office said Friday it is lowering the Level 2 (Be Set) Evacuation notice for the areas around Elk and Lava Lakes to Level 1 (Be Ready).
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As fall weather brings shorter days and cooler temperatures, the BLM is preparing for fall and winter prescribed burning. Fuels specialists may begin ignitions as early as next Monday, if conditions are favorable.
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This week’s cooler temperatures and forecast rain in places are welcome signs for the more than 900 firefighters still working to fully contain several fires burning on the Willamette National Forest, officials said in Wednesday’s update.
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Firefighters on Monday reached 25% containment of the day-old Trout Creek Fire that raced across 1,550 acres of private ranchland about 10 miles northeast of Madras, officials said.
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The Petes Lake Fire in the Three Sisters Wilderness that more than quadrupled in size in a day to over 2,000 acres Friday saw more growth Saturday amid hot, dry and windy conditions, reaching 2,550 acres, according to new infrared flight mapping Sunday, delayed due to smoky conditions.
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The Lookout Fire on the Willamette National Forest put up much more smoke again this weekend due to the hot, windy conditions, but containment lines held on the more than month-old blaze, still 50% contained, and cooler weather will help them continue mop-up and other work.
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Preliminary findings in the investigation of the August 20 Juniper Creek Fire that prompted Level 3 evacuations west of Lake Billy Chinook indicate that the fire cause was consistent with target shooting, the Oregon Department of Forestry said Friday.
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– It’s now been 20 years since the B&B Complex Fire — two big fires that merged into a giant one — exploded in the Deschutes National Forest near the Cascades crest and Santiam Pass.
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ODOT reopened Oregon Highway 242, the McKenzie Highway, Tuesday morning following reductions in Lookout Fire evacuation levels. A 15-mile stretch of the highway was closed nearly a month ago, on August 18, due to activity from the Lookout Fire, which has burned over 24,000 acres but is now 50% contained.
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The Cascade Lakes Highway reopened Saturday with a pilot car escort between Elk and Lava lakes after a closure for several days so crews on the Petes Lake Fire could create a shaded fuel break along the west side of the highway.
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