PORTLAND — Residents of several neighborhoods near The Dalles can now return home after a wildfire prompted evacuations and a closure of Interstate 84 on Wednesday.
The Wasco County Sheriff’s Office said in the early evening that all evacuation orders had been lowered to Level 1 (be ready.)
A spokesperson for Mid-Columbia Fire and Rescue, the agency handling firefighting duties, told The Oregonian/OregonLive the cause of the fire was not immediately clear. The blaze is believed to have started on the eastbound side of I-84 and jumped the interstate, according to the spokesperson.
A 23-mile stretch of the interstate was closed Wednesday afternoon because of a lack of visibility. The closure had been lifted by about 4:30 p.m., but the sheriff’s office urged drivers to proceed with caution, as there was still an active fire at the Port of The Dalles.
