MEDFORD, Ore. (AP) — The Oregon Gulch wildfire is burning within several miles of where a pack of wolves lives in southern Oregon, but the state Department of Fish and Wildlife says they are not threatened.
Wildlife biologist Mark Vargas in the Rogue District office says OR-7, his mate and three pups should have little trouble skirting the flames and smoke.
He told Mail Tribune, “These animals are survivors.”
Vargas says the wolves are not living now in a den. They change “rendezvous zones” where they leave the pups while hunting. The pack has been tracked around southeast Jackson and western Klamath counties.
PORTLAND — Some of the hundreds of people forced to flee a wind-driven wildfire in Oregon’s Columbia Gorge east of Portland were allowed to return Thursday and were happy to find their houses intact, even where flames had come as close as 30 feet.
“It is a huge relief,” said Connie Thomasian, a real estate agent who moved to the little community of Rowena overlooking the Columbia River with her husband, Craig, for the world-class wind surfing. “We still have our house. It’s a relief that everybody in our neighborhood has their house.”
The Rowena fire started Tuesday evening in brush, and by Thursday, had grown to 4.1 square miles northwest of The Dalles. The cause of the fire about 75 miles east of Portland remains under investigation.
Afternoon winds Thursday whipped up the fire around Foley Lakes Reservoir on the northeastern outskirts of The Dalles, prompting the addition of The Dalles Country Club to the evacuation area, fire spokeswoman Tina O’Donnell said.
Thomasian and her husband watched from a nearby park Wednesday with neighbors as helicopters dropped water around the house and firefighters put out hot spots on the steep hillside. At one point, there was “a burst of flame” and it looked like the battle had been lost, she said on Thursday.
“It was frightful,” she said. “I just disconnected myself from it, and thought, ‘I’m putting this in the hands of the firefighters and luck.”
Returning to the house Thursday, she found a charred softball, but the ranch house and a storage shed were untouched. Trees and grass were blackened within 30 feet of the house.
Old Highway 30 remained closed in the fire area.
In northern Idaho, five structures have been destroyed and 160 threatened by a wildfire burning on 64 square miles of mostly grass on the east side of the Snake River across from Oregon and Washington. Big Cougar Fire spokesman Tom Rhodes said it’s unclear if the destroyed structures are homes or outbuildings in the remote area accessible only by boat. Residents have been told to evacuate.
o In Washington state, Gov. Jay Inslee on Thursday asked President Barack Obama to declare parts of eastern Washington a major disaster area because of wildfires that have destroyed more than 300 homes this year. A declaration would provide federal assistance to help families, business owners and local governments recover from the wildfires.
o In California, a man was charged Thursday with starting last year’s massive Rim fire, which burned hundreds of square miles of Yosemite National Park and the Stanislaus National Forest.
A grand jury in Groveland, Calif., returned a four-count indictment against Keith Matthew Emerald, 32, alleging he started a fire Aug. 17, 2013, and it spread beyond his control. Federal prosecutors said temporary fire restrictions in place at the time prohibited fires.
Emerald, from Columbia in the Sierra Nevada foothills, is also charged with lying to a federal agent by saying he did not set the fire. A call to his attorney, federal public defender Janet Bateman, was not immediately returned.
o Five structures have been destroyed by a wildfire burning in northern Idaho and fire managers on Thursday planned a burnout operation to halt the fire’s northeast expansion.
Big Cougar Fire spokesman Tom Rhodes says it’s unclear if the destroyed structures are homes or outbuildings in the remote area accessible only by boat.
The fire is on the east side of the Snake River across from Oregon and Washington.
Rhodes says about 160 structures are threatened by the 64-square-mile fire burning in mostly grass but also some timber. Residents have been told to evacuate.
MEDFORD, Ore. (AP) -- The Oregon Gulch wildfire is burning within several miles of where a pack of wolves lives in southern Oregon, but the state Department of Fish and Wildlife says they are not threatened.
Wildlife biologist Mark Vargas in the Rogue District office says OR-7, his mate and three pups should have little trouble skirting the flames and smoke.
He told Mail Tribune, "These animals are survivors."
Vargas says the wolves are not living now in a den. They change "rendezvous zones" where they leave the pups while hunting. The pack has been tracked around southeast Jackson and western Klamath counties.
No injuries have been reported.
About 319 firefighters plus four helicopters are fighting the lightning-caused blaze that started Saturday.
Rhodes says the Snake River is preventing the fire from reaching Oregon and Washington.
