Heat, winds fuel destructive Northwest wildfires

Most of E. Wash. town destroyed; S. Oregon fire declared conflagration

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Wildfires fanned by high winds have burned hundreds of thousands of acres in the Northwest, mostly destroying a small town in eastern Washington state and causing evacuations, power outages and highway closures in Oregon.

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee said Tuesday more than 330,000 acres burned in Washington in a 24-hour period - more than burns in most entire fire seasons.

“It’s an unprecedented and heart-breaking event,” Inslee said at a news conference, blaming heat, high winds and low humidity for the explosive growth of fires.

Washington Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary Franz said thousands of people were affected by the fires, but there appeared to be no deaths or injuries.

The high winds grounded many firefighting airplanes and helicopters on Monday, making it impossible to knock down fires initially, Franz said.

The high winds and dry fuels in the Northwest are similar to conditions in California, where thousands of firefighters are battling dozens of fires around the state.

In Oregon, thousands of people were without power as crews battled large fires Tuesday in Clackamas County. Evacuation orders were issued throughout the day.

Oregon Gov. Kate Brown approved an emergency conflagration declaration that freed up state resources for several wildfires that exceed the capabilities of local crews. At a news conference, she said initial reports show some blazes may have been caused by downed power lines.

“This is proving to be an unprecedented and significant fire event for our state, and frankly for the entire West Coast,” Brown said.

The Lionshead fire in north-central Oregon and the Santiam Canyon fire east of Salem had burned 200,00 acres so far, Brown said.

Fire officials said their priority is evacuating people and protecting lives.

Near a fire burning east of Eugene, people were unable to evacuate for a time Tuesday afternoon because of roads blocked by fire and debris, according to the Oregon State fire marshal. Fire crews eventually helped 46 people escape that area, the fire marshal said.

As winds shift and slow Thursday, authorities said they hope to take a more “offensive approach” and assess damage.

Authorities evacuated three prisons in Salem because of wildfire threats, sending about 1,400 inmates to the Oregon State Penitentiary.

During the last two weeks, there have been 3,000 firefighters on the ground fighting blazes in Oregon.

A grass fire in Ashland in southern Oregon closed down a section of Interstate 5, the main north-south freeway along the West Coast. Authorities were telling residents on Tuesday evening northwest of Ashland along I-5, including all residents in the small city of Phoenix and some in Medford, to evacuate.

In Marion County, which includes the state capital of Salem, a blaze prompted evacuation orders Tuesday in the western foothills of the Cascade Range.

Among those evacuated to the Oregon State Fairgrounds were 160 residents of the Marian Estates independent senior living center in Sublimity, Oregon. The fire was so close it blotted out the morning sun as workers hustled out the elderly residents.

“It was pitch black dark out there — all you could see was red,” said Wendy Phelps-Chapman, activity director at the center who on Tuesday took on the task of evacuating residents. She made two trips on a bus with residents to the fairgrounds in Salem, the state capital 15 miles away. Volunteers transported walkers and wheelchairs.

Phelps-Chapman had two wear two masks just to filter out the airborne ash and be able to breathe.

By early afternoon, 600 people had checked in to the fairgrounds evacuation center, Red Cross spokesman Chad Carter said as more vehicles turned into the parking lot that was already jammed with cars, pickup trucks and campers.

In Idaho, the Idaho State Fire Marshal’s Office said in a social media post that 13 homes were destroyed along with 31 other structures and 26 vehicles near the north-central Idaho town of Orofino. A fast-moving complex of smaller wildfires, covering about 1,600 acres (647 hectares), was burning in the region.

In Washington state, Whitman County Sheriff Brett Myers said a wind-driven fire destroyed an estimated 80% of the homes in the town of Malden, which is about 35 miles south of Spokane and has about 200 residents. Malden lost its fire station, post office, City Hall, library and most of its homes, according to the sheriff’s office.

“The scale of this disaster really can’t be expressed in words,” Myers said in a statement. “The fire will be extinguished, but a community has been changed for a lifetime.”

The fire was pushed by winds of up to 45 mph. Deputies went door to door and used public-address systems to tell residents to evacuate.

The Washington Department of Natural Resources on Tuesday closed all of the lands it manages east of the Cascades to recreation because of high fire danger.

With no recent lightning storms, the overwhelming majority of wildfires the department is fighting are presumed to be human-caused, the agency said Tuesday.

“We expect hot, dry, fast-moving winds to continue,″ Franz said.

Meanwhile, wind, smoke and fire plagued Pierce County south of Seattle on Tuesday morning, closing highways, knocking out power and destroying six homes in the city of Graham.

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State Fire Marshal Mobilizes Blue Incident Management Team to Almeda Fire in Southern Oregon
Oregon State Fire Marshal - 09/08/20 10:20 PM

Gov. Kate Brown has declared the Almeda Fire in Jackson County a Conflagration.

The Almeda Fire is currently threatening lives, structures and property in Jackson County, impacting the communities of Talent, Phoenix and Medford.

The invocation of the Conflagration Act by Gov. Brown cleared the way for the State Fire Marshal to mobilize firefighters and equipment to assist local resources battling the fires.

The Office of State Marshal’s Blue Incident Management Team has been mobilized and will be leaving tonight for Jackson County. 

The deployment follows the deployment earlier today of the OSFM’s Green Incident Management Team to what is now called the Santiam Fire, in Marion County, and what is now called the Holiday Farm Fire, in Lane County, with the Red Team.

Evacuation orders in Jackson County have been issue by the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office.

Currently, the state is seeing multiple fire starts. Strong winds and extremely dry conditions helped accelerate the growth of multiple new and existing fires in the last 24 hours statewide, impacting the Oregon fire service and state and federal wildland firefighting agencies throughout the state.

Calls for assistance from impacted fire districts continue to be managed through the Oregon Fire Mutual Aid System.

Additional updates for the incident may be accessed on the Oregon State Fire Marshal Facebook page: www.facebook.com/OregonStateFireMarshal/.

Evacuation information in Jackson County can be found on the Jackson County Sheriff’s Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pg/JacksonCountySheriff/.

To learn more about wildfire evacuation readiness, go to: www.oregon.gov/osp/programs/sfm/Pages/Wildland-Urban-Interface.aspx#evacuation.