Oregon wildfires: More than 1.4 million acres burned

PORTLAND, Ore. — Wildfires in Oregon have burned more acres of land in 2024 than in any year since reliable records began, officials said Friday, with the fire season’s peak in mid-August still on the horizon. .

The flames have burned more than 1.4 million acres, or nearly 2,200 square miles (5,700 square kilometers), Northwest Interagency Coordination Center spokeswoman Carol Connolly said. That’s more than any other year since 1992 when reliable records began being kept, she said, and surpasses the previous record set in 2020.

Connolly said 71 large fires have burned the vast majority of land this year. Large fires are defined as those that consume more than 100 acres (40 hectares) of timber or more than 300 acres (120 hectares) of grass or brush.

Thirty-two homes in the state were lost to the fires, she said, which were fueled by high temperatures, dry weather and low humidity.

They prompted statewide evacuation warnings and set fires in largely rural and mountainous areas, although some also occurred near the Portland metro area.

Level 3 “go now” evacuation warnings were in effect Friday for the small town of Cherry Grove, about 35 miles (56 kilometers) west of Portland, as a fire burned in a nearby forest. David Huey, a deputy with the Washington County Sheriff’s Office, said most residents evacuated after deputies went door to door encouraging them to leave.

Planes and helicopters were pulling water from nearby Lake Henry Hagg to dump on the fire, said Gert Zoutendijk, spokeswoman for the Gaston Rural Fire District. The lake was closed to the public over the weekend.

The fire had grown to about 1.3 square kilometers (0.5 square miles) without containment as of Friday afternoon, although crews had made progress fighting the fire, Zoutendijk said.

Another fire near the Oregon city suburb of Portland prompted authorities to temporarily close part of a state highway in the morning and issue “go now” evacuation orders along part of the route. By mid-afternoon, authorities downgraded the evacuation and reopened the highway.

The largest fire is the Durkee Fire in eastern Oregon, which has burned more than 4,000 square miles but was at least 95% contained as of Friday, officials said. At one point, it was the biggest fire in the country.

Since then, California’s Park Fire has become the largest, burning more than 660 square miles (1,710 square kilometers) and destroying more than 600 structures. A man was arrested and accused of starting the fire by pushing a burning car down an embankment in a wilderness park outside the Sacramento Valley city of Chico.

Also in California, the Crozier Fire in El Dorado County has burned about 3 square miles (7.7 square kilometers) and was 5% contained as of Friday night, according to Cal Fire. The fire is burning in steep, rugged terrain and threatens 4,017 structures. The weather is forecast to remain hot and dry throughout the weekend.

Some of the fires in Oregon’s previous worst year, 2020, were among the worst natural disasters in the state’s history. Fires over Labor Day weekend killed nine people, burned more than 1,875 square miles (4,860 square kilometers) and destroyed thousands of homes and other structures.