The nation’s largest wildfire, burning northeast of Klamath Falls in southern Oregon, continued to grow, measuring 227,234 acres Thursday -- an area larger than New York City.
“We had a very active fire night last night,” Marcus Kauffman, a spokesman for the Oregon Department of Forestry, told The Oregonian/OregonLive. “The fire punched up a pretty good column of pyroculmulus clouds.”
Pyrocumulus clouds develop when a fire produces smoke plumes at such a rate that they tower into the atmosphere, up to 40,000 feet high, where they cool and condense. The result: powerful winds, created by the fire itself, and sometimes lightning.
“The pyrocumulus clouds pull surface winds that draw the fire in,” Kauffman said. “That generates a tremendous amount of activity.”
The Bootleg fire is churning through forests of ponderosa and lodgepole pine wracked by drought this year followed by a long-running heat wave that has left much of the high-desert ecosystem parched and primed to burn. Both the drought and the heat wave have been exacerbated by climate change.
The blaze was expected to merge Thursday night with the smaller Log fire, which started Wednesday about six miles northeast of the Bootleg fire’s eastern line.
Holly Krake, a Bootleg fire operations spokesperson, said strong winds pushed the larger fire northeast, driving it toward the Log fire.
Firefighters along the northeast side of the fire had to leave the area because of dangerous conditions for the fourth day in a row, she told The Oregonian/OregonLive.
The blaze, which began July 6 and is now 7% contained, has destroyed at least 11 homes and 35 other structures in Klamath County. Another 1,900 remain under threat.
Krake said authorities had not yet been able to assess how many homes in Lake County have been destroyed or damaged. The fire’s growth to the northeast had by Thursday evening prompted new evacuations in Lake County.
Still there was some good news along the fire’s southern edge, Kauffman said.
Crews have created some isolated areas of containment near the more populated areas of Sprague River and toward Chiloquin. Some of those areas may soon be downgraded from Level 3 (go now) evacuation orders to Level 2 (be ready), meaning some residents could return to assess the damage to their property.
Fire crews were focusing on the southeastern corner of the blaze, northeast of Bly, where firefighters have been digging containment lines and doing preemptive burning in advance of the fire’s arrival.
“The next couple days will be critical for our operations” in that area, Kauffman said. “That’s where we’re making a stand.”
The wildfire is expected to grow between one and three miles per day along its eastern flank, he said.
Krake urged people in fire-prone areas not to wait until they were under an evacuation order to figure out how to keep pets and family members safe.
“Make a plan before there’s smoke in the air,” she said.
Location: Along Oregon 138 east of Roseburg in Douglas County
First reported: July 5
Size: 15,248 acres
Containment: 20%
Evacuations: A map of current evacuation orders can be found here.
Damage: Four people have been injured in the fire. At least 243 structures were threatened, but it was unclear how many had been destroyed.
Conditions: “Cooler temperatures and higher relative humidity the next few days will help resources hold the fire within the planned containment line,” fire managers said Wednesday.
Location: About 8 miles south of Detroit Lake
First reported: July 12
Size: 155 acres
Evacuations: None
Damage: None
Conditions: Firefighters took advantage of favorable weather Wednesday and hand crews successfully dug lines around parts of the fire while air tankers did water drops.
Location: Near La Pine
First reported: July 13
Size: 686 acres
Containment: 1%
Evacuations: A map of current evacuation orders can be found here.
Damage: Three residences, one recreational vehicle and 11 other structures had been destroyed as of Wednesday evening.
Conditions: Firefighters held the blaze within containment lines Wednesday and planned to focus on reinforcing those lines and addressing spot fires Thursday.
-- Kale Williams; kwilliams@oregonian.com; 503-294-4048; @sfkale
Jayati Ramakrishnan of The Oregonian/OregonLive contributed to this report.