JOHN DAY, PRAIRIE CITY, and HINES, OR – (Thursday, August 4, 2022) The Beech Creek fire spread minimally within existing containment lines overnight and held at 254 acres; containment remains at 15%. Power was fully restored Tuesday evening and there are no evacuations in place.
Crews will continue to hold, improve, and mop up primary control lines. Mitigating hazard trees along Highway 395 to ensure the road is safe is a high priority. Travelers should expect smoky conditions especially during the early morning hours. The rough terrain has posed some challenges to the safety of firefighters, with the dense fir and a lot of fuel on the ground. There are plans in place to contain the fire along the southern border and to remove fuels from the fire. This will reduce the risk to fire personnel and bolster the containment line. The Incident Commander will be monitoring the situation over the next several days to evaluate the best suppression strategies.
Weather conditions have been favorable; however, we continue to see recent fires develop into larger incidents due to the receptive fuel conditions for fire spread across Oregon and Washington. The preparedness and availability of resources has supported our strategic approach to managing suppression efforts of the fire- especially given the challenging conditions with the steep terrain and heavily timbered areas. Our highest priority is always public and firefighter safety. We encourage you to check out our daily updates. In addition to those aired on KJDY, updates will also be posted at Chester’s Market, and the DinoMart in John Day and the Chevron station in Mt. Vernon.
With the potential for smoke to settle in certain areas during active operations, the public can monitor our smoke and air quality and across the state by visiting: http://oregonsmoke.blogspot.com
For more information and all the latest forest news on the Malheur National Forest, please visit our website at www.fs.usda.gov/malheur, follow U.S. Forest Service-Malheur National Forest on Facebook, and follow @MalheurNF on Twitter. r 
Figure SEQ Figure \* ARABIC 1. Forest Service photo by Sarah Bush
Figure SEQ Figure \* ARABIC 2. Forest Service photo by Ron Simpson
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