Governor Kate Brown Monday invoked the Emergency Conflagration Act in response to the Grandview Fire that broke out in Jefferson County Sunday afternoon.
The fire is estimated to be 4,000 acres in size and is located near Culver, where there are Level 3 evacuations in place. The fire northeast of Sisters is also threatening structures in Jefferson and Deschutes Counties.
The Office of the State Fire Marshal Red Incident Management Team will assume unified command with the Oregon Department of Forestry, and will work to bring resources from counties around Oregon to assist in the response.
Task forces from Benton, Linn, and Lane Counties that were previously on the Jack Fire east of Glide in Douglas County, are being reassigned to the Grandview fire along with crews from Marion County.
There are eight large fires burning in Oregon and Washington.
Robin DeMariois with the Northwest Interagency Coordination Center. She says it’s not unusual to have this many fires this early, but the recent heat wave and drought have made conditions challenging.
“That has impacted firefighting resources and made it a little more difficult firefighting conditions for folks out there," "It’s also dried out the fuels in the forest a lot sooner than what we’d expect.”
The largest fire in U.S., the Bootleg Fire, is in Klamath, county, it’s at more than 150,000 acres and zero percent contained.
The Jack Fire east of Glide has grown to more than 10,000 acres and is 10 percent contained as of Monday.
There are evacuations in place for all these fires.
More info on the Jack Fire evacutions: Douglas County Sheriff's Office
More info on Grandview Fire Evacuations here
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