The Bootleg Fire rages across central Oregon state, in Klamath County, Oregon, U.S., in this July 13, 2021 picture obtained from social media. (OREGON STATE FIRE MARSHAL /via REUTERS)
KLAMATH FALLS, Ore. – Hand crews backed by water-dropping helicopters struggled on Thursday to suppress a huge wildfire displacing roughly 2,000 residents in southern Oregon, the largest among dozens of blazes raging across the drought-stricken U.S. West.
The Bootleg fire has charred more than 227,000 acres (91,860 hectares) of desiccated timber and brush in and around the Fremont-Winema National Forest since erupting on July 6 about 250 miles (400 km) south of Portland.
That total was up 12,000 acres from Wednesday’s tally. Firefighters extended containment lines carved around the blaze to 7% of its perimeter, up from 5% a day earlier, but were far from gaining the upper hand.
“This is going to continue to grow – the extremely dry vegetation and weather are not in our favor,” Incident Commander Joe Hessel said on Twitter.
More than 1,700 firefighters and a dozen helicopters were assigned to the blaze, as the demand for personnel and equipment across the Pacific Northwest reached levels that have begun to strain available resources, said Jim Gersbach, a spokesman for the Oregon Department of Forestry.
“I wouldn’t say it’s unprecedented, but it’s not common for us to reach this level of demand on firefighting resources this early” in the season, he said.
No serious injuries have been linked to the Bootleg fire, officials said, but it has destroyed at least 21 homes and 54 other structures, and forced an estimated 2,000 people from several hundred dwellings placed under evacuation. Many have taken refuge in a Red Cross evacuation center at the Klamath Falls fairgrounds. Nearly 2,000 homes were threatened.
The Bootleg ranks as the largest by far of 70 major active wildfires listed on Thursday as having blackened nearly 1 million acres in 11 states, the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho, reported. It is also the sixth-largest on record in Oregon since 1900, according to state forestry figures.
Other states hard hit by the latest spate of wildfires include California, Idaho, Montana and Alaska.
As of Wednesday, the center in Boise put its “national wildland fire preparedness level” at 5, the highest of its five-tier scale, meaning most U.S. firefighting resources are currently deployed somewhere across the country.
The situation represents an unusually active start to the annual fire season, coming amid extremely dry conditions and record-breaking heat that has baked much of the West in recent weeks.
Scientists have said the growing frequency and intensity of wildfires are largely attributable to prolonged drought that is symptomatic of climate change.
TROUBLE AGAIN NEAR PARADISE
One newly ignited blaze drawing attention on Thursday was the Dixie fire, which erupted on Wednesday in Butte County, California, near the mountain town of Paradise, devastated by a 2018 firestorm that killed 85 civilians and destroyed nearly 19,000 structures in the state’s deadliest wildfire disaster.
The Dixie fire has charred about 2,250 acres (910 hectares) in its first 24 hours as some 500 personnel battled the blaze, which was spreading across a steep, rocky tree-filled terrain about 85 miles (140 km) north of Sacramento.
Erik Wegner of the U.S. Forest Service said dense stands of dead and dying trees created highly combustible conditions for the blaze. “It took off really fast,” he told Reuters.
The local sheriff’s office warned residents in and around the tiny community of Pulga to stand by for evacuations.
In Washington state, officials said they had contained about 20% of the Chuweah Creek fire near Nespelem, about 175 miles east-northeast of Seattle, which has burned some 22,900 acres (9,270 hectares), mostly on the Confederated Tribes’ Colville Reservation.
The blaze, caused by lightning and first reported on Monday, has been fueled by dry grass and timber with gusty winds as firefighters used planes and helicopters to drop water and fire retardant on it.