Fires flare up across region after storms

Firefighters in Oregon, Washington and Idaho scrambled Wednesday to find and staff dozens of new fires following a string of lightning storms that passed over the region.

The Blue Mountain Interagency Dispatch Center that covers northeastern Oregon and southeastern Washington received 87 reports of new fires Wednesday, and the Grangeville Interagency Dispatch Center that covers north central Idaho received about 25 reports of new fires.

“Those are not all confirmed and some of them likely are duplicates,” said Jamie Knight, of the Oregon Department of Forestry. “We are working feverishly to get folks to all of those incidents and using those eyes in the sky — fixed-wing reconnaissance and helicopters — to get out there and locate them and then help crews get there.”

The storms moved in a northeasterly arch across the Blue Mountains and into Idaho on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, tossing lightning into fire-primed terrain along the way.

The Walla Walla District of the Umatilla National Forest took some of the worst pounding. Forest Service spokeswoman Darcy Wesemen said the ranger district had about 30 new fires by Wednesday afternoon. The Heppner District had seven fires, the John Day District had two fires and there were three fires on the Pomeroy District — including one at Big Butte near Anatone and two in the Wenaha Tucannon Wilderness Area.

Wesemen said the Big Butte Fire was staffed, had low potential to spread and had burned about one-quarter of an acre by Wednesday evening.

The Morris Canyon Fire off of Cloverland Road southwest of Asotin burned about 95 acres on private land by Wednesday evening and was 10 percent contained. There are about 50 people working to suppress the fire that started Tuesday.

In Idaho, officials on the Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forest closed the Bridge Creek and Butter Creek campgrounds, portions of the 505 and 541 trails and the 1170 and 1166 roads. All of them are near the 700-acre Schissler Fire near Red River Hot Springs southeast of Elk City. The fire was reported Monday night and grew quickly on Tuesday. A Type 3 Incident Management Team is expected to take over management of the fire today.

The Transfer Fire on the Mount Idaho Grade 6 miles east of Grangeville was 20 percent contained by Wednesday evening and fire officials said homes in the area were no longer threatened.

The 40-acre blaze that also started Monday came within about 200 yards of a home, according to an Idaho Department of Lands news release. Spokeswoman Robbie Johnson said fire crews were scheduled to patrol the fire Wednesday night to guard against flare-ups.

Crews from the Craig Mountain office of the Idaho Department of Lands worked to control a 40-acre fire in the Mission Creek Drainage near Winchester. Crews from the department’s Deary-based Ponderosa Unit responded to a 4-acre fire near Wheatland Road north of Kendrick.

Hank Heusinkveld, a spokesman for the Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forest, said there were about 25 new fires scattered across the forest. Most were detected by aircraft, he said.

Many of the fires throughout the region have been staffed and several were contained before having a chance to grow. Knight of the Oregon Department of Forestry said new fires from the storms are likely to continue popping up in the next day or two. Forest spokeswoman Weseman noted more storms were forecast to move across the region Wednesday.

Firefighters who worked to put out the 1,400-acre Chief Timothy Fire on the Snake River breaks west of Clarkston are expected to demobilize today, said Gayne Sears, a spokeswoman for the Northeast Washington Incident Management Team. The fire started Sunday.

The Idaho Department of Fish and Game has closed its campground at Waha Lake south of Lewiston because of increasing fire danger. The campground will remain closed until conditions improve.

Barker may be contacted at ebarker@lmtribune.com or at (208) 848-2273. Follow him on Twitter @ezebarker.