Homes lost, thousands under evacuation orders as wildfires spread across Central Oregon

By JONI AUDEN LAND and JEN BAIRES/Oregon Public Broadcasting

Large swaths of Central Oregon are being consumed by wildfire, with several blazes burning across the region simultaneously, forcing thousands to evacuate and further stretching the state’s limited firefighting resources.

Late Saturday evening, the Bench Fire, just west of Madras, quickly grew to more than 6,200 acres with no containment. That led to Level 3 “Go Now” evacuation orders for the entirety of Warm Springs and other areas of Jefferson County.

U.S. Highway 26 was closed overnight between Warm Springs and Madras as firefighters worked to get the fire under control. The highway closed again Sunday between Prineville and John Day, and state transportation officials warned that erratic and rapidly spreading fires could further impact roads east of the Cascades, including Highways 26 and 20, into Monday.

The recent evacuations and road closures come as Oregon experiences one of the most aggressive wildfire seasons in years. A historically low snowpack over the winter has led to tinderbox conditions across much of the state. Officials say Oregon is experiencing August-like fire conditions in July.

Oregon currently has more than 34 active large fires burning statewide, covering more than 1 million acres, according to Jessica Neujahr, public affairs officer for the Oregon Department of Forestry.

She said conditions are so dry that “any small ember right now could potentially start the next large wildfire.” And the increasing number of fires is taxing the limited number of firefighters available.

“If they’re already assigned to a fire, we can’t just pull them off of it,” Neujahr said. “We are definitely looking at fires and having to start prioritizing which ones are going to be staffed appropriately.”

The Bench Fire moved rapidly toward Warm Springs on Saturday, jumping the Deschutes River and prompting thousands to evacuate. The Beachcomb Fire is also located near the reservation and has burned more than 2,000 acres.

“Unfortunately, (the Bench Fire) did jump the line that they put in that first night, and then ever since that, it’s been growing pretty rapidly,” said Matthew Wilcox, public information officer for the Central West Zone Type Three Incident Management Team.

Public safety officials have said the fire has been difficult to manage, with conditions remaining hot, dry and windy across the region. That, in turn, has led to frequent evacuation updates.

“We are trying to keep you as updated as possible and making sure all the notifications go out to the impacted people in the community. And as we typed this out, levels changed, then changed again,” the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office posted on Facebook on Saturday.

Some homes have been lost to the Bench Fire, according to Jason VanBuskirk, public affairs officer for the Central West Zone type 3 fire team.

“We’re still getting the count today, but the majority of homes were saved,” he said.

Billy Ayers, with the Red Cross, was out front of a shelter in Madras on Sunday afternoon as church goers went into the chapel for service. He said they housed five people at the shelter overnight as the wind and fire picked up along the edges of Madras.

One of the families staying at the shelter was an aunt who was watching her siblings’ kids. He said firefighters evacuated her and the kids to make sure she was in a safe place as the fire activity picked up.

Another couple came in around 1:30 in the morning.

“They were out and realized that they couldn’t get home,” Ayers said.

Ayers said he told the evacuees he would hold their cots in case they needed to be back.

The nearby Akawa Butte Fire has burned more than 27,000 acres and remains at 5% containment. It has been named the number-one priority fire in the country, due to its proximity to Sisters.

The largest fire in the state is the Big Grass Fire in the southeastern corner of Oregon, a largely unpopulated area. The second largest is the Rowe Creek Fire Complex, which has impacted much of Wheeler County. North of Rowe Creek, the Hay Creek Complex Fire has burned more than 165,000 acres, making it the third-largest wildfire in Oregon; it has been burning for more than 10 days.