Falls Fire Update for July 16, 2024  

Falls Fire 2024 | Facebook 

(541) 208-4370 Staffed 8 am to 8 pm 

2024.falls@firenet.gov  

The Falls Fire experienced significant growth again yesterday due to hot and dry conditions and strong outflow winds from passing thunderstorms. The fire is now estimated at 85,348 acres with 0% containment. The fire is burning approximately 13.5 miles north of Burns, 15 miles southeast of Seneca, and 3 miles west of Highway (Hwy) 395. Highway 395 remains closed from milepost 60 north to Seneca. 

A community meeting is planned for 6:30 p.m. at Seneca City Hall tonight, July 16. Fire managers intend to host the meeting in person and stream it live on the Malheur National Forest and Falls Fire 2024 Facebook pages. If fire activity or fire-related road closures makes it unsafe or unpractical for fire managers to travel from Burns to Seneca, the meeting will only be live streamed on Facebook. The meeting will include time for questions. 

Yesterday afternoon the fire grew significantly in the northeast corner. Initially, the fire grew northerly toward Forest Service Road (FSR) 31 and it then shifted southeasterly toward the FSR 3110 pushed by strong, shifting winds. The fire also challenged anchor points in the northwest corner and southeast corners of the fire. Firefighters, on both day and night shifts, lined spot fires and continued to hold the northwestern and southern perimeters of the fire along the FSR 43. Firefighters held the fire to minimal growth on the southeastern corner near Lake Creek and worked to establish dozer control lines to tie into the Silvies River area to the east toward the FSR 3110 area. One OSFM Structure Task Forces worked on the fire throughout the night to triage and provide structure protection. Firefighters continued to scout for opportunities to establish additional control lines. 

Aerial resources, including three helicopters, two cranes, six single-engine air tankers (SEATs), two large air tankers (LATs), and two very large air tankers (VLATs) helped to slow the fires growth, and supported firefighters as they made progress securing containment lines. 

Today, the fire is predicted to be very active with elevated rates of spread. Firefighters will work to construct additional control lines and to hold the fire along established control lines using both aerial and ground resources.  Firefighters will continue to scout for future control lines to the north and east.  

The Oregon State Fire Marshal (OSFM) Blue Incident Management Team and seven task forces have been assigned to the fire.  The task forces are structural firefighters from Oregon and Washington.  They include Washington County, Lincoln County, Douglas County, Tillamook County, Yamhill County, Clackamas County, Snohomish County, and Thurston County.  Their primary focus will be structure protection, structure assessment, and supporting the overall mission of the Falls Fire.  Fire activity in the area remains extreme and certain areas may not be safe for assessment.  As weather and fire behavior allow, OSFM Task Forces will assess cabins, ranches, and structures in and around the fire. Crews are documenting damage or lost structures using GPS software.  They will be working on Lone Pine Road, Hines Logging Road, east of Highway 395, and west of Hwy 395 toward Silvies Ranch. 

The incident command team continues to increase the number of resources working on the fire and to build greater capacity for fire suppression efforts. Currently there are 891 personnel on the fire; this includes 19 20-person hand crews, 41 fire engines, 13 bulldozers, and 14 water tenders.  

Today’s predicted weather calls for dry and very unstable conditions with temperatures near 90 degrees and humidity around 15%.  Winds will generally be from the west-southwest at 5-8 mph.  There is a chance of thunderstorms with gusty winds up to 30 mph.    

Evacuation notices remain in effect in Grant and Harney Counties. For the most accurate evacuation information, please visit the Harney County Sheriff’s evacuation map here: https://tinyurl.com/3zst4sjy, or the Grant County Emergency Management Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100068819321423.  

The Malheur National Forest issued an updated fire area closure Sunday, July 14. A detailed map and additional information about the fire area closure are available at: https://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/malheur/news-events/?cid=FSEPRD1188914. A temporary flight restriction (TFR) remains in place over the fire area. 

Fire Restrictions are in effect across Oregon; Know Before You Go, and use extreme caution while recreating in these hot and dry conditions. #OnlyYouCanPreventWildfires 

BAER INFORMATION BRIEF: Fire Severity and Fire Intensity Effects

There are several types of fire severity and intensity maps that you may see. Although they look different for the same fire, they may also all be accurate. This is because fire severity or intensity are different measures of the fire effects on a specific resource such as soils, tree canopies, vegetation or wildlife habitat. Burned Area Emergency Response (BAER) maps are primarily measures of fire effects on soils. The following is a description of BAER fire severity mapping for soil burn severity levels. 

SOIL BURN SEVERITY RATING OVERVIEW: 

High Soil Burn Severity Rating: (severe damage to the soils): deeply burned soils with high water repellent soils (tend to be places where the fire burned the forest canopy, ground cover, roots, and organic matter in the topsoil). 

Moderate Soil Burn Severity Rating: burned soil with moderate water repellent soils (much of the root, soil structure, and organic matter stayed intact and could help buffer the rainstorms that might cause erosion) can produce increased water run-off and soil erosion depending on the timing, magnitude, and duration of future precipitation. The remaining vegetation could quickly re-sprout and provide some cover from dead needles and leaf fall to reduce erosion. 

Low Soil Burn Severity Rating: light soil burning includes land that may have burned in recent occurrences with brush or young timber growing on it. 

KEY MESSAGES: 

• Fire severity and intensity are separate measures of the effects of fire on a defined resource. 

• All fire severity or intensity maps view landscapes from different perspectives, so various maps of the same fire can look very different, and all be accurate. 

• The BAER soil burn severity maps specifically focus on severity to soils and watersheds. 

• There are also several other types of fire severity or intensity maps – many of which focus on different aspects of vegetation such as, Burned Area Reflectance Classification (BARC) and Vegetation severity or intensity maps are both vegetation maps but will also look different for the same location and time. 

• Vegetation severity and intensity maps also come from a number of different perspectives and can be short-term or long-term views. 

• During post-fire assessments, the BAER team uses the term “soil burn severity” to differentiate post-fire soil properties from fire effects on vegetation (such as tree mortality), and/or general fire effects on the long-term ecosystem health. 

• When a fire slowly consumes fuel (long residence time), the fire (soil burn) severity is usually high. 

• Ground cover refers to the organic material on the top of the soil layer, and includes vegetative litter, duff, and woody debris. 

• When organic material within the ground cover and within the soil structure burns at high intensity, some of the water repellent components vaporize, and condense on the soil at the surface or deeper depending on the severity of the fire. 

• The correlation between fire intensity and soil burn severity is not always direct because the amount of heat generated and time duration both plays a critical role in the fire effects to soil. 

• Because of the variability of fuel consumption, soil heating typically is non-uniform across landscapes. 

• Wildfire does not always impact soils and vegetation in the same way. 

• A hot, fast-moving fire can consume much of the vegetation and move through so quickly that the soils remain largely intact. 

• Soil scientists evaluate preliminary burn maps from satellite imagery to determine the effects and create a soil burn severity map. 

• Hydrologists use that information to model storm runoff over the burned area to estimate potential flood impacts to lives and property. 

• Foresters use the same satellite images to create a different map that displays post-fire impacts to the trees. 

• A hot, fast-moving fire (wind-driven) can consume the majority of vegetation (especially when dry with low fuel moistures) in a burned area and can be classified as a high intensity fire area by fire ecologists/fire behavior analysts. 

• When the duration (also described as residency time) of the fire is short (fast moving, wind-driven), it can result in a low-to-moderate soil burn severity rating by BAER soils scientists because the soil did not get a lot of lingering heat on the ground.

BAER SAFETY MESSAGE: Everyone near and downstream from the burned areas should remain alert and stay updated on weather conditions that may result in heavy rains and increased water runoff. Flash flooding may occur quickly during heavy rain events--be prepared to act. Current weather and emergency notifications can be found at the National Weather Service website: www.weather.gov/hnx/.

BURNED AREA EMERGENCY RESPONSE

BASIN POST-FIRE 

BAER SOIL BURN SEVERITY MAP RELEASED

JULY 17, 2024

Forest Service Burned Area Emergency Response (BAER) specialists recently completed their data gathering and analysis for the Basin Fire burned area to produce a soil burned severity (SBS) map. This map and data display categories of unburned/low, moderate, and high. Approximately 56% of the total 14,059 acres analyzed by the BAER team are either unburned and/or low soil burn severity, while 42% sustained a moderate soil burn severity, and only about 2% identified as high soil burn severity. Note: InciWeb Basin Fire information currently shows that the fire is 95% contained at 14,023 acres. The team’s burned area analysis included 26 additional acres outside of the current fire perimeter.

The BAER assessment team used initial remote sensing imagery with their field validated soils data, to develop and produce a map showing soil burn severity levels for the burned areas The SBS is broken into four different classes: unburned (green), low severity (blue), moderate severity (yellow), and high severity (red). For more information on what these different SBS classifications mean, see BAER Information Brief at: Casnf Basin Postfire Baer - | InciWeb (wildfire.gov).

The BAER team relied on their refined soil burn severity map to produce data which they are using in their subsequent modeling and determination of post fire runoff and sedimentation. The BAER teams and the US Geological Survey (USGS) both utilized the soil burn severity map as an analysis tool to estimate post-fire flows and debris flow probability. In specific areas that experienced moderate to high burn severity, there could be increased runoff from steep hillslopes and resultant increases in post-fire soil erosion and potential debris flows.

The Basin soil burn severity (SBS) map can be downloaded at the Basin Post-Fire BAER InciWeb site: Casnf Basin Postfire Baer Information | InciWeb (wildfire.gov) as a JPEG or PDF version under the “Maps” tab.

BAER SAFETY MESSAGE: Everyone near and downstream from the burned areas should remain alert and stay updated on weather conditions that may result in heavy rains and increased water runoff. Flash flooding may occur quickly during heavy rain events--be prepared to act. Current weather and emergency notifications can be found at the National Weather Service website: www.weather.gov/hnx/.

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07-18-2024

Current Situation:

The Hill Fire is now being managed in Unified Command between the U.S. Forest Service and CAL FIRE. In addition, a local Type 3 Incident Management Team arrived today to assist with managing the fire and a Complex Incident Management Team and a CAL FIRE Incident Management Team has been ordered.

The fire is burning in steep and remote terrain making access challenging for ground resources within the Buck Creek and Mosquito Creek Drainages. Federal and state air resources including air tankers, helicopters, and air attack are on scene and will continue to perform retardant drops to try and slow the spread today. The fire is growing to the north in heavy timber.
Due to dry and hot weather conditions today fire activity is expected to be high with the potential for a rapid rate of spread and extreme fire behavior.

Crews will begin to provide structure protection along Route 1 and within the Friday Ridge communities. At this time there are multiple structures threatened. Firefighters are working
to construct direct and indirect line to control fire spread to the north and the west. Additional ground resources continue to be ordered and arrive on scene.

Evacuation Information:
Evacuation order and warning remain in effect. For current updates on evacuations, visit https://www.facebook.com/HumboldtSheriff and https://humboldtgov.org/2383/Current-Emergencies. Conditions are subject to change at any time, visit https://protect.genasys.com/search for a full zone description.

Sign up for Humboldt Alert emergency notifications at https://humboldtgov.org/2014/Emergency-Notifications

Evacuation Order Issued for Zone HUM-E077A: Due to the Hill Fire, the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office has issued an immediate evacuation order for zone HUM-E077-A North of White Oak Creek/Grouse Creek, South of Friday Ridge Road, Forest Route 6N08A, East of Titlow Hill Rd, Twin Lakes Creek, West of Mosquito Creek/Madden Creek. Those in this zone should leave now for their safety.
Evacuation Warning Issued for Zone HUM-E077-B: Due to the Hill Fire, the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office has issued an evacuation warning for zone HUM-E077-B North of PG&E Rod, Grouse Creek, South of Madden Creek, Forest Route 6N06, East of Mosquito Creek/Madden Creek, West of Trinity County Line. Prepare for potential evacuations, including personal supplies and overnight accommodations. Those in this zone should prepare to leave at a moment's notice. More information will follow if an evacuation order is issued.

Closures:
Road closure is in place at Friday Ridge Road at Forest Service Route 6N06.

Fire Restrictions:
Forest fire restrictions currently in effect across the Six Rivers National Forest. Campfires and stove fires are restricted to those developed areas listed in the forest order located at https://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/fseprd1188610.pdf.
Smoking, welding, and operating an internal combustion engine also have restrictions in place.

Additional Fire Information:
The Hennessey 2, Ridge 2, and Waterman Fires are all staying within their fire perimeters of less than a quarter acre each. This will be the last update for the Hennessey 2, Ridge 2, and Waterman Fires unless significant activity resumes.

Important Announcement from the Malheur County Sheriff's Office:

After daily briefings with our Fire Crews that are working the Cow Valley Fire, we have determined that we can LIFT all Evacuation Readiness Conditions for ALL areas. Conditions have improved to the point that we are confident that homes are no longer at risk. Fire crews continue to work in these areas, evaluating and rehabilitating the burned ground.

LONE ROCK FIRE UPDATE July 17, 2024

Location: 10 miles SE of Condon, Oregon | Size: 69,354 acres | Containment: 10% Cause: Under Investigation | Start Date: July 13, 2024 | Total Personnel: 333

Official Fire Information: https://inciweb.wildfire.gov/incident-information/orprd-lone-rock-fire 

Fire Information Line: 541-208-4369

Condon, Oregon — The Lone Rock Fire began on July 13 and is being managed under a full suppression strategy. Northwest (NW) Team 2 and Oregon State Fire Marshal (OSFM) Red Team assumed unified command of the Lone Rock Fire on Wednesday, July 17 at 6:00 a.m.

Yesterday’s Activities:

The Oregon State Fire Marshal quickly mobilized resources to the LoneRock Fire as it threatened nearby communities. One task force from Linn County was mobilized on July 14 to support South Gilliam County RFPD, Bureau of Land Management, USDA Forest Service, Oregon Department of Forestry, and local ranchers to protect the town of Lonerock, Ore. Crews were successful in protecting all homes and structures in the town as the fire moved through the area. Four more task forces were deployed on July 15 as Governor Kotek invoked the Emergency Conflagration Act. An additional two task forces, along with OSFM’s Red Team, were mobilized early Tuesday morning following their assignment on the Cow Valley Fire. Firefighters worked through the night providing structure protection to the surrounding communities and increasing containment of the Lone Rock Fire to ten percent.

Today’s Activities: Additional resources continue to arrive to support the suppression efforts. Wildland fire crews continue to patrol and secure firelines on the northwest portion of the fire; however, crews continue to find heat along the northeastern and southern edges of the fire. Firefighters will continue to use all available resources to construct containment features along the fire’s edge where safe and feasible, while exploring indirect containment features further from the fire’s edge. Structure protection in the community of Lonerock continues to be a priority as OSFM task forces continue to minimize threat from the fire to structures within the community. OSFM task forces are also conducting structure assessment and protection efforts beyond the fire’s edge in the surrounding communities of Hardman and Lefevre Prairie.

Firefighters will continue to work through the night providing structure protection and suppression efforts throughout the fire – with increased resources in the southeast where the fire is most active.

Evacuations:

• Level-3 Evacuations – GO NOW! Level-3 Evacuate immediately for the following areas:

o Gilliam County: community of Lonerock, Ore. An evacuation center is set up at memorial hall in Condon. For more information on evacuations, visit Gilliam County Sheriff's Office Facebook page

o Wheeler County: Township 6, Range 24. A temporary evacuation point has been set up at the Wheeler County Fairgrounds (720 E 3rd Street in Fossil, OR). Showers and public restrooms are available on site. For more information about the evacuation point, call 2-1-1.

o Morrow County: from the West County Line along Buttermilk Canyon to HWY 207, Mile Post 10 South of Hardman to the South Morrow County line. The Red Cross will be setting up a temporary shelter at the Heppner Elementary School. For more information on evacuations, visit Morrow County Sheriff's Office Facebook page

• Level-2 Emergency Alert – GET SET! Level-2 Be set to evacuate at a moment’s notice for the following areas:

o Gilliam County: Hardman to mile post 10 o Wheeler County: Township 6, Range 23.

Weather: Hot, dry, and unstable conditions will continue with an increased chance of thunderstorms over the fire area. Gusty and erratic outflow winds from the thunderstorms could exceed 40 mph. As thunderstorms pass near the fire, strong, erratic winds could push the fire in any direction. Predominant winds will be 5 to 10 mph from the north-northwest; continuing to push the fire to the south-southeast. Temperatures will remain elevated with highs in the mid- 90s today.

Smoke Information: Visit https://fire.airnow.gov/ for local air quality information.

Flight Restrictions: A Temporary Flight Restriction (TFR) is in place above the Lone Rock Fire area. If you fly, we can’t. Unauthorized drone flights (UAS) pose serious risks to firefighter and public safety and the effectiveness of wildfire suppression operations. Aerial firefighting is suspended when unauthorized UAS are in the area, allowing wildfires to grow larger.

Operational Update for the Watch and Buckhorn Fires for Wednesday July 17, 2024, provided by John McLaughlin, Plannings Operations Trainee for Southwest Area Incident Management Team 2.  Also available in Apache! As presented by Shelly Swift. 

Available now on the San Carlos Apache Forest Resources Program-Foresty Facebook page! See below for links to both videos. 

Datos clave

Tamaño: 23,529                   

Fecha de inicio: 8 de junio de 2024                

Ubicación: 31 millas al NO de Chelan, WA

Contención: 14%                 

Personal: 776                          

Causa: De origen humano, a ser determinada

Recursos asignados: 18 equipos, 9 helicópteros, 20 camiones de bomberos, 23 tanques de agua, 18 maquinarias pesadsas

Se realizará una reunión comunitaria en Manson esta tarde a las 5:30 PM en la preparatoria Manson High School. La reunión también será transmitida en directo en la página de Facebook sobre información del incendio Pioneer. Agradecemos que envíen sus preguntas por adelantado al correo 2024.pioneer@firenet.gov o a través del Messenger de Facebook. 

Se realizará una reunión comunitaria en Stehekin mañana a las 6 PM en el centro de visitantes Golden West.

El incendio Pioneer se extiende dentro de una zona montañosa y remota del Bosque Nacional Okanogan-Wenatchee, cerca de Lake Chelan. Los bomberos ejecutan una respuesta de extinción completa en los espacios naturales de Lake Chelan-Sawtooth para proteger los bienes, vidas y propiedades en riesgo, y tienen como objetivo principal la seguridad del público y de los bomberos. Las comunidades de Chelan, Manson y Stehekin se encuentran abiertas y siguen recibiendo visitantes. 

Operaciones: Ayer, los bomberos aprovecharon el éxito que tuvo el trabajo de quema del lunes por la noche alrededor de Round Mountain al iniciar una operación de quema en ciertos puntos para protegerlos a lo largo de Fish Creek, desde el extremo norte de la montaña hasta el lago. Este trabajo de protección de puntos fue exitoso. A varias millas de distancia, se puso más fuerte la actividad del fuego y se desplazó a Hunt's Creek. Esto no estuvo relacionado con la operación de quema para proteger ciertos puntos. Los bomberos también completaron la línea de contingencia indirecta a lo largo de Cooper's Ridge hacia Parrish Peak.

Los bomberos y los camiones de bomberos del incendio Pioneer han ayudado a los Distritos de Bomberos 5 y 7 del Condado de Chelan al evaluar estructuras en Manson y sus alrededores. Continuarán coordinándose con los distritos de bomberos locales para garantizar que estén disponibles las evaluaciones estructurales precisas y los datos de inventario si llega a ser necesario. Las condiciones meteorológicas previstas para el día de hoy, con ráfagas de viento, pudieran resultar en focos de calor y una actividad de incendio muy intensa en los desagues activos como Flick Creek, Middle Fork Prince Creek (Cub Lake) y East Fork Fish Creek, donde existe una gran cantidad de leña muerta y caída. Los bomberos del incendio Pioneer están disponibles para ayudar con nuevos incendios de ataque inicial en la zona.

Seguridad y cierres: El Bosque Nacional Okanogan-Wenatchee ha emitido una orden de cierre sobre gran parte del área afectada por el incendio. Podrá encontrar detalles y mapas disponibles en: https://bit.ly/PioneerClosure. La restricción temporal de vuelo (TFR, en inglés) sobre el área del incendio fue ampliada ayer: https://tfr.faa.gov/save_pages/detail_4_6779.html. La actividad de drones está prohibida por la TFR, ya que los helicópteros no pueden volar si hay drones no autorizados.

Evacuaciones: El sheriff del condado de Chelan extendió la evacuación de nivel 3 lago arriba hasta Hazard Creek a lo largo de Lake Chelan, que ahora incluye Safety Harbor hasta Hazard Creek. Los niveles de evacuación de nivel 1, 2 y 3 permanecen vigentes alrededor del incendio Pioneer. Visite https://t.ly/QoH9w para tener más información.

Clima y humo: Hoy está vigente una Advertencia de bandera roja por cause de las tormentas eléctricas secas y los muchos relámpagos, y permanece en efecto un aviso de calor. El pronóstico de la calidad del aire se puede ver en: https://bit.ly/PioneerFireSmoke.. Obtenga más información sobre el humo en http://wasmoke.blogspot.com/. El jefe de bomberos emitió clasificaciones de peligro de incendio y restricciones: https://t.ly/WLBds..

Wednesday's fire weather and fire behavior updates for the Watch and Buckhorn Fires as provided by Steve Fano, Incident Meteorologist for Southwest Complex Incident Management Team 2. Available now on the San Carlos Apache Forest Resources Program - Forestry Facebook page!