PORTLAND — Lightning sparked 30 new fires in the south central Oregon area in the past two days, though accompanying moisture and crews helped keep blazes small.
According to a news release from the South Central Oregon Fire Management Partnership, the area was hit in the past two days by “an over abundant amount of lightning with wet monsoonal storms.” That caused 21 fires on Tuesday and another nine new fires on Wednesday, all of which were contained before spreading to a significant size.
On Tuesday, the Sycan fire on the Fremont-Winema National Forest spread to the largest fire at five acres. A fire at Crater Lake National Park and another on the Fremont-Winema National Forest stayed at one acre. The remaining 18 were kept under 0.1 acre.
On Wednesday lightning ignited nine new fires, all of which were kept under 0.1 acre with help from firefighters and rain.
According to fire information officer Brian Reublinger, rain can help plants and vegetation but areas can still be at risk for fires due to Oregon’s drought.
“When you look up on the hillside and you see nice, green vegetation, you kind of get that false sense of security that everything is OK,” he said. “There’s still plenty of dry fuels that are on the ground that can start a fire from a lightning strike.”
In this case, firefighters responded quickly enough to the new blazes to keep the fires contained to very small areas, Reublinger said.
Officials had predicted Oregon’s wildfire season to start earlier and last longer than usual this year. The Corner Creek Fire near Dayville, also started by lightning, recently forced one rancher to move his cattle.
The South Central Oregon Fire Management Partnership also includes the Oregon Department of Forestry Klamath and Lake District, Bureau of Land Management Lakeview District and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Sheldon-Hart and Klamath Basin. Reublinger said officials are still determining how recent storms might affect this year’s wildfires in their part of the state.
“We’re kind of still trying to figure out if that’s going to delay our fire season,” he said.
