Six wildfires are currently burning away in Oregon. As KLCC’s Brian Bull reports, fire officials want people to be extra careful given some changing factors.
Just one of the fires was caused by people, the rest were started by lightning. Chuck Turley of the Northwest Interagency Coordination Center says storm activity is abating, but now there’s a shift…
“…to a warming and drying trend for the next week or so," he tells KLCC.
"Temperatures are being predicted early in the week to be in the 90s up and down the I-5 corridor, and triple digits in eastern Oregon and eastern Washington.”
…which drives up the fire danger potential.
Turley says they’ve an advanced management team on the whitewater fire east of Detroit, which is difficult to access. He warns travelers to the Mount Jefferson area to check road and trail closures. Another team is off to the Blanket Creek Fire, outside of Prospect:
“That fire is burring in fire scars from the old Silver Fire and the Biscuit Fire, which by coincidence, occurred about 15 years ago and 30 years ago," he says.
"The fact that it’s in those old burn scars means there’s very heavy, dead and downed fuel.”
Officials urge people to be cautious with fires, since most are caused by carelessness or negligence….especially with the August 21st eclipse hitting right at peak wildfire season.
Copyright 2017, KLCC.