You know the infernos are out of control when 25,000 firefighters aren’t enough to stop them.
Advertisement
Wildfires destroying homes around this Cascade Mountain resort town are helping stretch firefighting resources to the point that authorities activated the military and sought worldwide aid to beat back scores of blazes burning uncontrolled throughout the dry West.
Center managers haven’t decided which fire that will be yet, but more than 1,700 square miles combined are burning in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, California, Nevada and Colorado.
“We really appreciate the incredible work our first responders are doing”, Brown said.
About 200 soldiers from the 17 Field Artillery Brigade, 7Infantry Division, Army at the Joint Base Lewis-McChord (JBLM) in Washington, split into 10 crews, will attack one of the fires.
The year-to-date acreage burned so far is about 7.1 million acres (2.9 million hectares) nationwide, according to the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho.
“If they’ll leave us alone, we can get that established, and we’re prepared to do that”. The military is providing C130s cargo airplanes, known as Mobile Ariborne Fire Fighting Systems, equipped to drop large fire retardants.
The help can be crucial in particularly active years like this one.
Officials have not yet picked which fire the soldiers will fight, but they have plenty of options.
Over the last few days, firefighters completed burn-out operations along Forest Road 316 in anticipation of the wildfire’s growth in that direction. The image below shows the same fires on August 13.
The fire had burned more than 283,000 acres by Wednesday morning and was 95 percent contained. Two buildings were destroyed and five people injured.
Progress was reported on numerous state’s other active fires. Over the same period last year, there were 3,047 fires that burned 87,988 acres.
With so many fire departments sending engines to protect homes from wildfires, the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department banned beach fires, campfires and candles in state campgrounds.
Firefighters had not identified a cause of the fire.
U.S. Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell and Gov. Kate Brown were to be visit the fire command post on Wednesday at the Grant County Fairgrounds, where food, clothing and household goods for victims were being handed out.
If the administration has its way, future costs for the largest fires could come from FEMA, the way other natural disasters like hurricanes and floods are handled.
“It’s not a major loss to the industry”, Riggan said. Thousands of people have been evacuated. Paula Kunkel said the community is coming together to help.
“There was nothing we could do – it was gone”, Canyon Creek resident Dean Fox told CNN affiliate KTVZ-TV.
Nearly two dozen fires are scorching Washington.
Advertisement
Fire officials say there is still concern about the north side of town, where around 400 homes are still under evacuation orders.
