News Release from Oregon Dept. of Forestry – Posted on FlashAlert: June 26th, 2015 9:37 AM
Wildfire activity on the 16 million acres of private and public lands protected by the Oregon Dept. of Forestry (ODF) was relatively light this past week. Fire managers are currently focused on fire weather conditions predicted to set up today and continue into the weekend.
The Northwest Interagency Coordination Center in Portland advises that “Lightning and atmospheric instability are expected to begin over sections of southern Oregon today and spread northward over the weekend. Fire danger indices have climbed high enough to warrant elevated risk of large fires due to the number of lightning strikes expected over the weekend. A number of sections of Oregon and Washington will be affected, so pay attention to local weather forecasts. Thunderstorms will become wet but the atmospheric instability plus the sheer number of new starts from lightning will challenge initial attack over the weekend. A number of new large fires are likely to result.”
FIRES ON ODF-PROTECTED LANDS
No new fires 10 acres or larger were reported on ODF-protected lands this week.
FIRES ON OTHER LANDS
The Buckskin Fire reported June 11 burning 10 miles SW of Cave Junction on the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest is 5,345 acres and 60 percent contained. More info available at: http://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/4286/
The Little Basin Fire reported June 15 burning 10 Miles North of Imnaha in the Hells Canyon National Recreation Area is 630 acres and 97 percent contained. More info available at: http://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/4290/
FIRE STATISTICS*
Fire statistics are for the current year and the average over the past 10 years for the 16 million acres of private and public forestland protected by the Oregon Department of Forestry.
January 1, 2015, through today:
Lightning-caused fires: 74 fires burned 114 acres
Human-caused fires: 239 fires burned 532 acres
Total: 313 fires burned 646 acres
10-year average (January 1 through the present date in the year):
Lightning-caused fires: 25 fires burned 25 acres
Human-caused fires: 150 fires burned 1,308 acres
Total: 175 fires burned 1,333 acres
Fire statistics can be accessed any time from the ODF website.
*When personnel are heavily engaged in firefighting activities, the latest information may not always appear in the statistics.
