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Weather Conditions And Terrain Create More Challenges For Fire Crews

inciweb

Tuesday afternoon, the Lane County Sheriff upgraded evacuation notices for areas in the upper McKenzie where several active wildfires are burning.

Some areas are under level 3, “go”, evacuation while others are at levels 2, or 1, which is “ready to go”.
Sandra Lopez is spokesperson for the Willamette National Forest. She says the Separation Fire is the most active one burning in the area around the upper McKenzie. She says Tuesday the fire burned north up highway 242.
“There’s a lot of rugged terrain out there that we’re not able to put firefighters in because it’s not safe to do so.” Lopez says,  “So we are taking direct and indirect tactics. But, just because of the fire activity and the way that the fire’s behaving, the current weather conditions, the area where the fire is burning. All of those combinations together are causes for concern.”
There are more than a dozen wildfires in the Willamette National Forest burning more than 50,000 acres. Nearly 1,000 fire crews are fighting those blazes.

More information and updates atinciweb.gov
 

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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