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Central Oregon Fires Update

Over 800 firefighters are battling the 62,000 acre High Cascades Complex burning on the Warm Springs Indian Reservation. And it's a tossup whether Mother Nature will help. "They are calling for some cooling over the next couple of days, so that part is good, but they're also thinking there might be some winds coming up too in the next couple of days. So it's kind of a wait and see attitude." Mark Morrow with the Northwest Coordination Center says nearly 200 homes are threatened by the fire. Six have already been evacuated.

 
With fire burning on both sides of the Deschutes River, rafters should also be cautious. "If they've rafted through the area, for example, they might see helicopters, you know coming into the rive with buckets to put water on the fires. And so they're just urging people to be cautious and be aware of this action that was going on all around them." Morrow says cooler temperatures should help crews but strong winds could also push the fires.
 
As for the weather:
 
Fire crews are busy all over Oregon fighting wildfires caused by lightning strikes from storms last week.
Oregon Department of Forestry spokesman Rod Nichols says they are on stand-by in case any of these large fires on federal lands seep into state and private lands. Going forward the weather is looking mostly good.
“And the weather forecast is a little bit better, and so we're expecting less of a chance of lightning. But nevertheless the conditions in the forests and rangelands is very, very dry and the fuels are dry and the weather is warm. And so other sources of fire-starts can occur, mainly human caused.” He says you don't want to come home from a fun vacation and discover that you accidently started a big expensive fire in Oregon. The largest fire is the High Cascades Complex on the Warm Springs Indian Reservation; it’s at about 62,0000 acres, is 10% contained. The Hancock Fire near Clarno is about 53,000 acres and 70% contained.

As for air quality right now ; the DEQ issued an air quality warning for Prineville. And the air around Sisters is rated as "moderate".  Surprisingly bend's air is currently considered "good".

 

 

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