Fires along Hwy. 26 reminder of active fire season

Four small fires along Highway 26 Tuesday morning about 4 miles south of Warm Springs briefly shut down the highway’s shoulders in both directions as crews put them out and mopped them up.

“A vehicle of some kind went by the Warm Springs Reservation and once again dragging a chain or somehow causing sparks,” said Oregon Department of Transportation spokesperson Peter Murphy. “Those sparks flew out onto the shoulder, caught the grass on fire. Once that happened, things took off.”

Jefferson County Fire District No. 1 Fire Chief Brian Huff said the four fires were contained quickly. Crews from Jefferson County, Warm Springs and the Bureau of Land Management were called in around 9 a.m. and left the scene after complete mop-up around 11 a.m.

According to Huff, the largest fire of the four was around a quarter=acre, but the flames could have sparked disaster.

“When you have multiple fires along a highway, that can blow up really quickly,” Murphy said.

Just a month ago, the County Line 2 fire in Warm Springs also started from sparks along the highway. What started as a few small fires quickly grew. Currently, the County Line 2 fire is at 67,000 acres and at 97 percent containment.

“Just over the weekend, we had the same thing happen near Klamath Falls on Highway 140, where 20 small fires were started by a truck that was going by,” Murphy said.

Officials with the U.S. Forest Service are keeping a close eye on conditions, which are determined by a combination of moisture, temperature and relative humidity.

“Those numbers are being looked at daily,” said Trevor Miller, assistant fire management officer for fuels in the Newberry Division of the Central Oregon Fire Management Service. “We’re not out of the woods just yet.”

A few days of rain will not necessarily mean a change in the fire danger, either.

“It will hedge on the duration and the amount of moisture we will actually receive,” Miller said.

For now, despite the cooler temperatures, fire danger in Central Oregon remains at extreme as fuels remain dry. All it takes for a fire is a spark.

“This is happening more often, and people just need to be more careful,” Murphy said.

Campfires remain banned in Central Oregon until further notice. When in doubt, call the campground ahead of time.