BIGGS JUNCTION, Ore. — An Oregon official says a fire that started in an abandoned apartment building in the small Columbia River Gorge town of Biggs Junction destroyed that structure and one home before winds began spreading it eastward through grass and brush toward the small community of Rufus.
Sherman County Emergency Services Director Shawn Payne said the fire started Wednesday afternoon and soon burned about 2½ miles to the east.
By Wednesday night, she said the blaze was 60 to 70 percent contained and some of the 50 firefighters had been sent home. Rufus, about five miles from Biggs Junction, was not threatened.
Payne says U.S. Highway 30 along the Columbia had reopened.
She says a state fire marshal’s investigation has determined the apartment building fire was started unintentionally, possibly by a cigarette.
Biggs Junction is about 90 miles east of Portland.
