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Lightning Could Spark More Wildfires This Week

Schin Haakenson
/
Inciweb

Most of the major wildfires burning in Oregon are at or near containment, but a new round of intense lightning storms is forecast this week.

Fire officials say 6 of the 11 large wildfires in Oregon now range from 80 percent to fully contained. The blazes are burning east of the Cascades.
Carol Connolly with the Northwest Coordination Center says lightning is expected for the next couple of days.

Connolly:  "The main focus will be in the Central Oregon area with the anticipated lightning and the mix of wet / dry conditions, we are anticipating that it will be just right for the potential for large fire."

Connolly says an estimated one million acres have burned so far in Oregon and Washington. And fire season is far from over.

Connolly: "We are trending upward still and that's concerning. You know, we still have a lot of summer left. Two full months of fire, at least two months left where we could continue to have large fires."

The Buzzard Complex is currently the largest wildfire in the nation. It's almost 100 percent contained after burning 618 square miles of rangeland southeast of Burns.
 

Rachael McDonald is KLCC’s host for All Things Considered on weekday afternoons. She also is the editor of the KLCC Extra, the daily digital newspaper. Rachael has a BA in English from the University of Oregon. She started out in public radio as a newsroom volunteer at KLCC in 2000.
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