Lines holding on Warm Springs Reservation fires

(Update: Lines holding, mop-up begins)

The first day of summer brought an early start to fire season across Central Oregon, with two new lightning-sparked fires on the Warm Springs Indian Reservation, one at 1,000 acres by day’s end and the other 120 acres, with more crews on the way.

The Whiskey Fire was reported shortly after 11 a.m. Thursday and broke out about eight miles north of Warm Springs, below the base of the Mutton Mountains, said William Wilson, assistant fire management officer for logistics with the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs Fire Management.

The fire, which grew to 1,000 acres in blustery winds by late in the day, was about a mile away from the Charley Canyon subdivision but the winds were pushing it north, away from those homes, Wilson said Thursday night.

At midday Friday, Wilson said all of the lines were holding and mop-up had begun before the heat of the day tests the situation.

The flames were burning in annual cheatgrasses and sagebrush, with scattered junipers, but Ponderosa pines also could burn in the lower Muttons, Wilson said. A crew was working along an old Jeep trail, “trying to hold it” before it gets into strands of unburned timber.

Nearly 100 firefighters were on the lines Thursday and that number is expected to grow to nearly 200 Friday, including 10 engine crews from elsewhere in Central Oregon.

Another lightning-sparked fire south of Warm Springs, the Seekseequa Fire was estimated at 120 acres late Thursday and also no containment, Wilson said. It’s about three miles south of the Seekseequa subdivision, just north of Lake Billy Chinook.

One engine and a 10-person forestry crew was on that fire, with five more engines and two Type 2 crews ordered as officials are concerned it could grow in Friday’s heat.

Other new blazes tested fire crews Thursday west of Cove Palisades State Park, where hundreds of homes at Three Rivers were evacuated, and south of Maupin, where a major brushfire broke out.