Working on the Skyline Ridge Complex 22 miles southeast of Roseburg, Oregon
1:53 p.m. PDT August 12, 2021
Map of the Skyline Ridge Complex of fires at 8:22 p.m. PDT August 11, 2021
Four firefighters assigned to the Skyline Ridge Complex of fires in Oregon were transported by ambulance Wednesday morning August 11 after their vehicle rolled over.
The Douglas County Sheriff’s Office reported that a crew vehicle transporting fire personnel from their night shift assignment on the Skyline Ridge Complex east of Canyonville struck approximately 60 to 70 feet of guardrail before driving up a hillside and rolling over. The crash resulted in non-life threatening injuries to four firefighters who were transported by ambulance to Mercy Medical Center in Roseburg, Oregon where they were treated and later released.
The call came in to 9-1-1 at approximately 9:53 a.m. of a single vehicle rollover crash in the 15000-block of Tiller Trail Highway roughly 10 miles east of Canyonville and Interstate 5.
The injured personnel are part of a 20-person crew assigned to the fire. Additional crew members traveling in two other vehicles were not involved in the accident.
Deputies determined the driver, a 38-year-old wildland firefighter from Salem, Oregon fell asleep at the wheel while returning to fire camp after working the night shift on the fire. Alcohol and speed were not contributing factors in the crash and no citations or arrests were made.
The Skyline Ridge Complex is a group of fires started from lightning on August 1, 2021 about south-southeast of Roseburg, Oregon. Combined, the fires have burned 3,546 acres.
These firefighters were very lucky. From 1990 through 2014, 22 percent of the wildland firefighter fatalities were the result of vehicle accidents.
Bootleg Fire map. The white line was the perimeter at 8 p.m. PDT July 21, 2021. The red dots represent heat detected by a satellite at 3:48 a.m. PDT July 22, 2021.
The Bootleg Fire 27 miles northeast of Klamath Falls, Oregon grew Wednesday to 399,359 acres in spite of the higher humidity and reduced wind speeds. The less extreme fire behavior gave firefighters the opportunity to construct and improve firelines. The forecast for Thursday afternoon should enable those activities to continue, but a warming and drying trend is expected into the weekend.
As of July 21, $41.5 million has been spent on the fire and 184 structures have been destroyed.
“Fire crews and support personnel have made significant progress in containing this fire in the last few days.”said Joe Prummer, Incident Commander trainee of Pacific Northwest Incident Management Team 2. “However, we still have a long road ahead of us to ensure the safety of the surrounding communities.”
July 21, 2021. InciWeb photo.
As the need for night operations on the southern zone decreases, those resources are being moved to the day shift or sent home for rest as they time-out.
There are at least five large significant wildfires currently burning in Washington and Oregon. Here is a quick and dirty summary. The acreages were as of Saturday evening, but all were putting up large smoke plumes Sunday easily seen from a satellite.
Working north to south, starting in Washington:
Cub Creek 2 Fire
4,690 acres, 5 miles north of Winthrop, Washington. Numerous residences are threatened. Evacuations are in effect, including for pack animals, mules from the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest who were relocated to their winter pasture.
pack mules on the Oka-Wen
The north flank of the Cub Creek 2 remains unchecked. Retardant from very large air tankers, water scooping planes, and helicopters with buckets are providing support to firefighters in all locations of the fire. It is burning north pushed by diurnal winds during the day and smoke pushed down south during the late evening and morning.
Cedar Creek Fire
4,080 acres, 12 air miles northwest of Winthrop, Washington, very close to Highway 20. The western perimeter of the fire has burned onto a ridgeline with sparse fuels, slowing the spread. On the southern portion of the fire, growth has been minimal as it burns in subalpine areas with minimal vegetation. The northeastern portion remains the most active.
Summit Trail Fire
2,031 acres, 17 miles west of Inchelium. It has only been burning for three days. On Saturday crews continued to build direct fire line. There was fire growth on the north-northwest side of the fire, and crews scouted Upper Ridge Creek Road, developing a plan to prep and hold the fire along the road.
Due to limited resources the fire continued to spread Saturday to the northeast at a moderate rate of spread, but that pace increased Sunday.
And in Oregon:
Jack Fire
16,764 acres, on both sides of Highway 138, 9 miles northwest of Clearwater. South of Highway 138, firefighters continue burnout operations to build primary line on the west and southwest flanks. On the southeast side, crews will continue to use heavy machinery to clear and brush out roads used as control lines.
Bootleg Fire
298,662 acres, 30 miles northeast of Klamath Falls. The Bootleg Fire continued to push further into Lake County for a distance of five miles on the north side and ten on the east side. It remains about four to five miles north of Highway 140. It was extremely active again on Sunday, as can be seen in the satellite photo above.
In Southern Oregon, 30 miles northeast of Klamath Falls
1:51 p.m. PDT July 18, 2021
Map of the Bootleg Fire. The white line was the perimeter at the end of the day on July 17. The yellow line was the perimeter about 48 hours before. (A technical glitch caused them to be offset a little.) The red areas represent heat detected by a satellite at 4:12 a.m. PDT July 18, 2021.
The Bootleg Fire in Southern Oregon which is primarily in Klamath County continues to push further into Lake County for a distance of five miles on the north side and ten on the east side. It remains about four to five miles north of Highway 140.
The additional growth on Saturday brought the size up to more than 298,000 acres.
(To see all articles on Wildfire Today about the Bootleg Fire, including the most recent, click HERE.)
Hot, dry, and windy weather conditions played a significant role in fire behavior Saturday. The fire crossed Sam’s Cabin Road and the 27 Road to the north. It is held from Preacher Flats to Mitchell Monument and is pushing further east, approaching the 28 road. Firefighters were able to construct dozer line and execute a burnout to minimize the fire growth overnight. One of Sunday’s priorities will be to attempt hold these areas to prevent further spread.
Firefighter on the Bootleg Fire. Photo by PIO J. Michael Johnson. InciWeb July 17, 2021.
Other priorities include constructing direct fireline and building contingency lines north of the fire in the Sycan Marsh and along the 28 Road to the south. These contingency lines may be used if the fire continues to march towards the communities of Paisley, Summer Lake, and Silver Lake.
Feller Buncher and its Operator, July 17, 2021. InciWeb.
The weather forecast for Sunday in the Beatty, Oregon area calls for 91 degrees, 8 percent relative humidity, and 11 to 17 mph winds gusting out of the southwest at 26 mph for a couple of hours in the late afternoon. Monday the conditions will be similar, but with a much more serious wind component. For about 11 hours the wind will be from the southwest at 13 mph gusting at 20 mph, and changing directions three times — at dawn, 11 a.m., and 10 p.m.
Early photo of the Bootleg Fire, around July 6, 2021. InciWeb.
Extreme fire behavior made it too hazardous to remain on the north side
7:40 a.m. PDT July 16, 2021
Map of the Bootleg Fire. The red areas represent heat detected by a satellite at 3:12 a.m. PDT July 16, 2021. The white line was the perimeter at 7:09 a.m. July 15, 2021.
In Southern Oregon on Thursday firefighters were pulled off some areas of the Bootleg Fire for their own safety. With extreme wildfire behavior causing large fire growth on the north side, it became too hazardous for crews, engines and heavy equipment so they relocated and regrouped.
The southeast side of the fire moved two to four miles east Thursday and crossed into Lake County.
(To see all articles on Wildfire Today about the Bootleg Fire, including the most recent, click HERE.)
Satellite photo showing smoke from wildfires at 6:41 p.m. PDT July 15, 2021.
In the video below, retired smokejumper and Bootleg Fire Public Information Officer Jacob Welsh narrates from the front lines Thursday afternoon as equipment was relocating.
An overnight mapping flight determined that the Bootleg Fire had burned over 236,300 acres.
The Incident Management Team is also managing the Log Fire. It was active on its east side Thursday when the gap between the two narrowed to four miles.
Map of the Bootleg Fire at 10:14 p.m. PDT July 14, 2021.
To say the Bootleg Fire in Southern Oregon was active Wednesday is an understatement. It exhibited extreme fire behavior for hours as winds out of the southwest and west gusted at 15 to 23 mph from 11 a.m. until 10 p.m. while the relative humidity was in the low teens.
I have never seen anything like the satellite photo below. The orange colors are a representation of heat from the very active fire. The eastern two-thirds of Oregon are covered in smoke and a large dark gray oval plume is east of the Bootleg Fire. The white plume stretching to the east appears to be a very, very large pyrocumulus cloud — condensation after the smoke has reached a high altitude. The very unusual feature is the sheer size of the pyrocumulus, which is about 130 miles long.
Bootleg Fire satellite photo at 7:11 p.m. PDT July 14, 2021. GOES 17, NASA.
The fire was mapped at 10:14 p.m. Wednesday at 232,760 acres.
Wednesday evening the Safety Officer and Incident Meteorologist assigned to the Bootleg Fire took the unusual step of issuing a special weather statement to firefighters:
At 8:18 PM PDT, Doppler radar and GOES West Satellite was tracking a pyrocumulonimbus over the Bootleg Fire. Preliminary indications are showing that the smoke plume could possibly collapse over the next hour. Although confidence in the collapse is low, this would be a serious event with strong and quickly shifting winds. Winds in excess of 40 mph will be possible with this collapse. Firefighters and all other persons in and around the Bootleg Fire should prepare for DANGEROUS WEATHER CONDITIONS and seek shelter immediately.
The extreme fire behavior we have been seeing on a regular basis is placing firefighters and the public at increasing risk. Wildland firefighting has always been dangerous, but the “new normal” is a level up on that scale. Firefighters and the public need to recalibrate their thinking about how vegetation fires move across the landscape.
Pyrocumulus clouds, before the last five to 10 years, were not nearly as common as they are today, and are one of the most obvious visual examples of how climate change is affecting wildland fires.
(To see all articles on Wildfire Today about the Bootleg Fire, including the most recent, click HERE.)
The information below about the Bootleg fire is from the Incident Management Team, July 14:
“Power distribution is interrupted in SE Oregon from Fields, OR to Winnemucca, NV with power to pumps supplying agricultural ranches out. There are significant impacts to the CA power grid, causing strain on their power distribution system, which is a very sensitive issue. Smoke has already caused arcing due to the conductivity of the carbon particles in smoke, which impacts power distribution lines well ahead of the fire. Klamath and Lake County Sheriff and Emergency Managers are handling evacuation planning.
“Fire remains very active with significant acreage increases due to hot, dry, breezy conditions, and plume dominated fire behavior. Poor humidity recovery at night is contributing to active fire spread through the night time period. Robust spread rates are being generated by drought effected fuels. Expecting similar conditions for the next several days.
“Although it is predicted to have slightly cooler temperatures in the next couple days, temperatures remain above normal and RH values are expected to be in the lower teens. These conditions paired with gusts winds at times will test control lines, and are expected to contribute to active/extreme fire behavior. Unstable conditions will exist over the area, but smoke thickness will dictate fire weather conditions.”
The weather forecast for Thursday morning in the Beatty, Oregon area calls for 88 degrees, 15 percent relative humidity, and 6 mph winds out of the southwest. After 5 p.m. the wind will be out of the west and northwest at 11 to 14 mph gusting to 21 mph. Another day of active fire behavior.
