Wind-Whipped Flames Drive Crews To Pull Again From Bootleg Hearth Traces; ‘Fairly A lot Like A Hurricane’ – CBS San Francisco
BEATTY, Oregon (CBS SF / AP) – Winds gusting up to 30 mph (30 mph) lashed through the Bootleg Fire zone on Monday, forcing firefighters to retreat to safety as they battled a massive fire that broke out in Fremont- Winema has grown to more than 343,755 hectares National Forest.
The National Meteorological Service issued a red flag warning for the region until 8 p.m. on Monday. However, forecasters said the same condition will apply from 2pm to 8pm on Tuesday.
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US Forest Service: About Bootleg Fire, Oregon
“Given the atmospheric instability, it will be interesting to see how big a pyrocumulus builds up over the bootleg fire,” said forecasters on Monday afternoon. “There are three different clouds of smoke burning over this fire, and all of them are showing small pyrocumulus clouds at this point. The concern here is whether a thunderstorm will eventually form over the heated plume of smoke. In any case, isolated storms are predicted east of the fire. “
Pyrocumulus clouds, heated by embers and overheated air, create their own erratic weather systems. The embers express themselves, light point fires in the tinder-dry bushes and in the trees and accelerate the spread of the fire. The cloud can also trigger firenados – fast-moving, terrifying columns of fire and embers.
Officials of the US Forest Service described the fire conditions on Monday as “extreme, crowning, running, spotty … point fires that quickly show extreme fire behavior with a very high proportion of ignition”.
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At one point during the nightly firefight, winds whipped the fire into a terrifying wall of flames.
“I spoke to our sales representative some time ago,” said operations chief John Flannagan during his briefing on Monday afternoon. “He said it (the fire) went over there pretty much like a hurricane, tore trees out of the ground and tossed them (the trees) around. Pretty impressive fire behavior. “
The fire has grown to 476 square miles and burns 300 miles southeast of Portland in and around the Fremont-Winema National Forest, which is a vast expanse of ancient forest, lakes, and nature reserves.
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It is one of the most remote areas on the west coast with few roads.
If the fire were in densely populated parts of Northern California – like the Lightning Complex Fires in the San Francisco Bay Area last year – “it would have destroyed thousands of homes by now,” said James Johnston, a researcher at Oregon State University’s College of Forestry of the historic Studied forest fires. “But there is a fire in one of the more remote areas of the lower 48 states. It’s not the Bay Area out there. “
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At least 2,000 houses were evacuated at some point during the fire and another 5,000 were threatened. At least 70 houses and more than 100 outbuildings went up in flames. Thick smoke is choking the area, where residents and wildlife have been battling drought and extreme heat for months. Nobody died.
It is small unincorporated communities like Paisley and Long Creek – both with fewer than 250 residents – and scattered homesteads that are currently in the crosshairs of the fire.
“The bootleg fire threatens ranch homes that are in quite remote areas,” said Johnston. “There are no suburbs in this area.”
But the flame is also getting closer and closer to merging with the much smaller Logg Fire.
Unfortunately, both fires are advancing towards Path 66 – an important electrical line corridor that connects California’s grid to power generators in the northwest. The corridor is exactly in the middle where the flames would converge.
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© Copyright 2021 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All rights reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
