BAKER CITY, OR -- With more than three dozen large wildfires burning in the Pacific Northwest, the region and the country are at Preparedness Level Five. "That’s the highest level of preparedness," says Lauren Maloney, with the Northwest Coordination Center, "The Pacific Northwest is the Number One priority in the nation and we’re getting as many resources as we can."

NWCC tracks fires and provides logistical support for incidents in Oregon and Washington. "We currently have 38 large wildfires on the landscape in Oregon and Washington. That’s 29 in Oregon and nine in Washington." Maloney says a "large fire" is an incident over 100 acres in timber or 300 acres of rangeland. "In addition to that, we have literally hundreds of other wildfires on the landscape in both states that are just small little acres, that are initially attacked by local resources and many of them are getting put out. And then there are a number of others that are small and growing," says Maloney.

As of Wednesday morning, Oregon’s largest is the Durkee Fire, estimated at almost 245,000 acres. Crews from 22 states are assigned to that incident southeast of Baker City. It's one of four "mega fires" in the state, defined as those over 100,000 acres. The Falls Fire, outside of Burns, is more than 140,000 acres; the Lone Rock Fire, near Spray, is nearly 135,000 acres; and the Cow Valley Fire, also near Baker City, is now over 133,000 acres. But Maloney says there is certainly potential for others to grow into a mega fire, "The east winds are fanning fires and making them large. Some of those larger rangeland fires are growing quite rapidly when there’s thunderstorm down-drafts that are creating significant wind events."

It means resources are stretched, despite receiving firefighters from all over the U.S. "We’re tapping additional resources, like the National Guard is helping to support us," says Maloney, "And we have firefighters that are going to be coming in the next couple of weeks from Australia and New Zealand, that’ll help us out." She adds, "They’re going to start traveling here this week. We’ll put them through some local training and then hopefully they’ll be able to help us increase our capacity, to really address some of these wide landscape-level-acreage fires."

Fire managers are preparing for the long haul, "These fires are likely going to be on the landscape for a long time, really until we get a season-ending event, like a heavy rain or snow." She says that makes it even more important to prevent new fires from starting.  

Photo: The Durkee Fire makes a run up to Interstate 84, between Baker City and Ontario, 07/22/24. Courtesy Oregon Department of Transportation.