Western Fires Still Threaten Communities
Dateline: 08/25/97
A fire near Los Angeles was contained after 12 days of fire fighting. This "Narrows" fire near Wrightwood, a tiny California mountain community of 4,000 people and just miles northeast of Los Angeles, was stopped and no lives were lost.
The southern California Narrows fire burned 48,000 acres at a cost of an estimated $9 million - 31 crews and nine pumper units were used to suppress the fire. The area has not burned since 1953 and was started when a camper burned toilet paper.
Problems are stemming from this year's western fire season and new outbreaks have now moved north. Fires are raging in the northern part of California, Washington, Idaho, and Oregon. Very high and extreme fire indices (indices map) were reported in these same states.
The Oregon Department of Forestry at Oregon State indicates that a new fire, being fought by a 100 man crew, is located 1 mile west of Klamath Falls (see with MapQuest! Interactive Atlas). Active fire behavior has been both unpredictable and erratic and a subdivision has been evacuated. Erratic winds have created control problems and favorable weather conditions are not in the forecast. No fire cause has been determined but the fire continues to burn.
The National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho reports other major fires, including the Perry Road Fire in Washington and the Cottonwood Creek Fire in Oregon. I'll be keeping a watch on these during the next several days so stay tuned.
The Incident Management Situation Report indicates that there have been a total of 46,786 fires in the United States since January. These fires burned 2.7 million acres so far this year. The southern region of the US leads all other areas with 17,628 fires, burning 248,425 acres. You might note that the south has their major forest fire season during the winter and spring months, which would explain the large number of fires to date.
PLEASE firewise your home. More on the latest wildfire situation coming soon...
