PORTALND — Firefighters battling huge wildfires throughout Oregon are making progress thanks to better weather and national resources, but they face challenges in coming days with a forecast for wind and lightning, state officials say.
The progress comes as Oregon’s known wildfire death toll dropped Monday to at least eight, given that two sets of remains thought to be human were determined to be animals.
Meanwhile, 50 people remain unaccounted for — a number that officials stress is fluid and may rise as recovery efforts continue. Twenty-two of those people have been confirmed missing, according to the Oregon Office of Emergency Management.
Blazes throughout the state have destroyed hundreds of homes, forced tens of thousands of people to flee and burned more than 1 million acres.
Air quality throughout most of Oregon remains poor on Tuesday, and conditions in Portland are far and away the worst among major cities globally.
Here is the latest on Oregon wildfires. This report will be updated throughout the day Tuesday.
Southern Oregon fires to watch
Doug Grafe, chief of fire protection at the Oregon Department of Forestry, said the blaze he is most concerned about in the coming days as winds could pick up is the Brattain fire near Paisley.
The blaze is covers 34,151 acres and has prompted Level 3 (go now) evacuations.
Also at the top of Grafe’s list is the 14,536-acre Two Four Two fire at Chiloquin, which he said is completely surrounded by containment lines.
The Thielsen fire near Diamond Lake could also prove challenging, with 6,700 acres burning in heavy timber on federal lands, he said.
Winds could also fuel the 32,030-acre South Obenchain fire near Medford.
The Slater fire, which burned into Oregon from northern California, covers 131,601 acres, as well.
Clackamas County fires
Lower winds, moderated temperatures and increased humidity are all helping arrest the growth of the Riverside fire and other smaller blazes in Clackamas County, allowing county officials to back off evacuation levels for some areas Monday.
But the 134,575-acre Riverside fire remains an uncontained conflagration that fire crews are only beginning to get a handle on with increased resources that have arrived in recent days.
Meanwhile, the Sheriff’s Office said it was saturating the county with extra patrols with help from other agencies to protect the homes and property of evacuated residents and to keep rogue citizen patrols at bay.
They said they were not seeing a big increase in crime from normal levels and again tried to quash baseless rumors of widespread looting and outside groups targeting the county.
Marion County fires
Last week, Grafe said the Riverside fire in Clackamas County might merge with Marion County’s Lionshead and Beachie fires. But on Monday he said fire crews are now doing their best to maintain a 30,000-acre “finger of timber” between them.
The Beachie Creek blaze has grown to over 190,000 acres as of Tuesday and is 15 percent contained.
The Lionshead fire is now 168,097 acres and 5 percent contained.
Lane County
The Holiday Farm fire has decimated Blue River, where about 800 people live, and ravaged countless other buildings and dwellings along Oregon 126.
The fire grew 1,550 acres from Monday morning to Tuesday morning. It now covers a total of 166,573 acres and is 6 percent contained.
Douglas County
The Douglas County Sheriff’s Office on Sunday night announced that 109 homes have been destroyed in the Archie Creek fire east of Roseburg and no new reports of structure damage were reported on Monday as crews reported “decreased fire activity” due to favorable weather conditions.
The blaze did not grow between Monday morning and Tuesday. It covers 121,379 acres and is 15 percent contained.
Lincoln County
The Echo Mountain Complex remained at 2,435 acres from Monday into Tuesday. During that same stretch, firefighters were able to increase the amount of fire that’s contained from 25 percent to 33 percent.
Residents east and south of the Rose Lodge area were allowed to return home Monday, as authorities announced the areas had moved from a Level 3 to a Level 2 evacuation order.
Level 3 evacuations remained in effect in and around the blaze.
Washington County
Both fires in Washington County are now 100 percent contained.
On Monday, the Oregon Department of Forestry said the Powerline Fire, which led to evacuations near Hagg Lake, was 100 percent contained. Crews had finished mopping up the fire and transferred operations back to the Gaston Rural Fire District.
All Level 3 evacuation orders have also been lifted for the Chehalem-Bald Peak fire, meaning all residents are allowed to return home. The blaze was 100 percent contained Monday.
