The Oregon Falls Fire: More than 100 Fires burning in the U.S. as of Friday, according to the National Interagency Fire Center
Grant County Search and Rescue found a small air tanker that had gone missing while fighting in the 566 square kilometer wilderness of Oregon. Falls Fire burning near the town of Seneca and the Malheur National Forest. The pilot died, said Bureau of Land Management information officer Lisa Clark. No one else was aboard the bureau-contracted aircraft when it went down in steep, forested terrain.
The most damage so far has been to the Canadian Rockies’ Jasper National Park, where a fast-moving wildfire forced 25,000 people to flee and devastated the park’s namesake town, a World Heritage site.
More than 110 active fires covering 2,800 square miles (7,250 square kilometers) were burning in the U.S. on Friday, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. Some were caused by the weather, with climate change increasing the frequency of lightning strikes as the region endures record heat and bone-dry conditions.
Videos posted to social media include a man who said he heard explosions as he fled Juliaetta, about 27 miles (43 kilometers) southeast of the University of Idaho’s campus in Moscow. The town of just over 600 residents was evacuated Thursday just ahead of roaring fires, as were several other communities near the Clearwater River and the Nez Perce Tribal Hatchery Complex, which breeds salmon.
There’s no estimate yet on the number of buildings burned in Idaho, nor is there information about damage to urban communities, officials said Friday morning.
The largest fire in the state’s history is larger than the entire city of Los Angeles, which is 1,214 square miles, Cal Fire said in a post.
Overall more than 110 active fires covering 2,800 square miles (7,250 square kilometers) were burning in the U.S. as of Friday, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.
A Firefighter in El Paso, Californio, Decays Three Homes and Five Buildings During the First Two Days of Fire Outbreaks
Alpers said she doesn’t know whether the fire spared her home or not, but she said that as long as her dogs are safe, she doesn’t care about the material things.
“Everything else we had burned up, but getting them out, getting us out, was my priority,” Singleton said Saturday, standing outside her SUV as her dogs rested. They have all been sleeping in the car outside a Red Cross shelter at a church that does not allow animals, and Singleton, 59, said the next thing is to find a place for her pets to stretch out.
Fire crews were making progress on another complex of fires burning in the Plumas National Forest near the California-Nevada line, said Forest Service spokesperson Adrienne Freeman. Most of the evacuees returned home Friday, after being evacuated from the Gold Complex fires. Some crews were getting ready to help fight the fire.
Ronnie Dean Stout, 42, of Chico, was arrested early Thursday in connection with the blaze and held without bail pending a Monday arraignment, officials said. There was no reply to an email to the district attorney asking whether the suspect had legal representation or someone who could comment on his behalf.
“I think I felt like I was in danger because the police had come to our house because we had signed up for early evacuation warnings, and they were running to their vehicle after telling us that we need to self-evacuate and they wouldn’t come back,” said Parker, a mother of five.
Hundreds of people had to flee their homes in the face of the Park Fire in California. A fire burned across the street and when it spread to her home in Forest Ranch, she decided to leave with her family. She has previously been forced out of two homes by fire, and she said she had little hope that her residence would remain unscathed.
A fire in eastern Washington destroyed three homes and five outbuildings near the community of Tyler, which was evacuated Friday afternoon, said Ryan Rodruck, spokesperson with the Washington Department of Natural Resources. The firefighters were able to put out the Columbia Basin fire in about half a square mile.
A fast-growing fire caused people to flee in rural Idaho, and a new blaze in eastern Washington forced the evacuees to flee.
Officials at Lassen Volcanic National Park evacuated staff from Mineral, a community of about 120 people where the park headquarters are located, as the fire moved north toward Highway 36 and east toward the park.
Billy See, the Cal Fire incident commander said at the briefing that there is a tremendous amount of fuel out there. He said the fire was moving fast and was on its way to 21 square miles.
The ferociousness of the Park Fire made fire officials compare it to the Camp Fire in Paradise, which killed 85 people and left 11,000 homes damaged or destroyed last year.
The largest active fire in the state grew rapidly on Friday evening and was threatening thousands of homes as firefighters rushed to meet the danger.
Susan and her husband packed up their SUV, groceries and their seven dogs and fled from their home in Cohasset, a town of about 400 northeast of Chico. The house they lived in burned down.
In Southern California, a blaze in the Sequoia National Forest swept through the community of Havilah after burning more than 48 square miles (124 square kilometers) in less than three days. The town of 250 people had been under an order to leave.
Crews were also making progress on a complex of fires in the Plumas National Forest near the California-Nevada line, Forest Service spokesperson Adrienne Freeman said. Traffic was backed up for miles near the border along the main highway linking Los Angeles and Las Vegas.
And in Idaho, homes, outbuildings and a commercial building were among structures lost in several communities including Juliaetta, which was evacuated Thursday. The grouping of blazes referred to as the Gwen Fire was estimated at 41 square miles (106 square kilometers) in size with no containment.
The Cal Fire Marshal says it isn’t going to be ruined by fires. An emergency warning for the evacuation of Paradise
The cooler weather has firefighters taking advantage of it, said Jeremy Pierce, an operations section chief with the Cal Fire.
Temperatures are expected to be cooler than average through the middle of next week, but “that doesn’t mean that fires that are existing will go away,” said Marc Chenard, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland.
Paradise again was near the danger zone on Saturday. The whole town was under a warning to leave. Evacuation orders were also issued in Plumas, Tehama and Shasta counties. An emergency warning calls for people to be prepared to leave, while an emergency order requires them to leave immediately.