Oregon blaze expands
Firefighters, residents forced into retreat
BLY, Ore. – Stoked by hot, dry winds, the largest of several dozen Western wildfires roared through more drought-parched brush and timber in southern Oregon on Monday, displacing some 2000 residents after destroying scores of homes, officials said.
An army of nearly 2200 personnel battling the so-called Bootleg fire, raging in and around the Fremont-Winema National Forest 250 miles (400km) south of Portland, increased their containment lines to 25 per cent of its perimeter, up from 22 per cent the day before, the Oregon
Forestry Department reported.
“We are fighting the fire aggressively, and there are active efforts to build a containment line, both direct and indirect, wherever it is safe to do so,” agency spokesman Marcus Kauffman said.
But the amount of landscape charred since the blaze erupted on July 6 grew another 40,000 acres on Thursday alone to reach an estimated total of almost 340,000 acres (138,000 hectares) – more than half the land mass of Rhode Island, the US Forest Service reported.
Only three other Oregon wildfires over the past century have consumed more acreage, according to state forestry figures.
Extreme fire behaviour on Sunday forced some ground crews to fall back to “safety zones” for a ninth straight day and regroup as they “looked for opportunities to re-engage,” incident commander Joe Hessel wrote in his daily report.
“This fire is a real challenge, and we are looking at sustained battle for the foreseeable future.”