Oregon 2007

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PORTLAND - East of the Cascades, it is still very dry, and more than a dozen wildfires continue to torch the central and eastern Oregon landscape.

Nearly 200,000 acres are burning in Oregon. All of them started by lightning.

The Egley Complex fire, the largest, has grown to 120,000 acres and is 45 percent contained as of Tuesday.

The two fires closest to the metro area are the Ball Point Fire in the Badger Creek Wilderness and the cluster of fires on the Warm Springs Indian Reservation. Neither is more than 15 percent contained as of Tuesday.

Officials are tightening fire-related restrictions in central Oregon. Starting Thursday, no campfires will be allowed on Prineville Bureau of Land Management lands.

All open burning is prohibited in lands protected by the Oregon Department of Forestry in Crook, Deschutes and Jefferson counties, and no off-roading is allowed.

Anyone planning on traveling through these recreational areas should check with officials for details on restrictions.

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SISTERS, Ore. (AP) - Residents of Black Butte Ranch were
evacuated after a wildfire moved to within a half-mile of the
upscale development in Central Oregon.
No homes or other structures at the 1,830-acre Black Butte Ranch
were immediately threatened. Residents and guests were told a few
days ago to have their bags packed, and the evacuation was said to
be an orderly one.
"Apparently, because people started early, there's not much
slowdown at all," said Peter Murphy, spokesman for Oregon
Department of Transportation.
The 5,400-acre GW fire was 5 percent contained Monday night.
"We know it's bigger (than the reported acreage)," said Robin
Vora, a fire spokesman. "It's expanding in all directions."
Authorities could not place a firm number on the number of
people evacuated. Thousands live there in summer, but many left
before Monday's order.
The American Red Cross established an evacuation shelter at a
local church, but few were expected to stay there Monday night.
Those who had not already left town were believed to be staying
with family or friends, or heading back to a primary residence.
Residents of Black Butte Ranch are familiar with the
pre-evacuation and evacuation notices that come with wildfire
season. It has been threatened several times in recent years and
two homes burned in 2002.
Mark Rapp, commander of the Central Oregon Interagency Incident
Management Team, said the firefighting effort has been helped by
fuel-reduction projects undertaken each spring and fall in the
surrounding area.
More than 670 firefighters have been assigned to the fire.
Managers called in a structural protection task force, with fire
crews and engines from around Central Oregon, to protect homes,
should the flames grow closer to the ranch.
One firefighter suffered a mild concussion when he was hit by a
felled tree over the weekend, Rapp said.
With most of the effort focused on protecting homes from the
east side of the lightning-sparked fire, the blaze was active on
its northwest and southern perimeters, with the northwestern edge
pushing into the Mount Washington Wilderness.
A low pressure system moving across Oregon was expected to
provide a tenth of an inch of rain to the area on Tuesday. Rapp
said the winds that have been a problem since the fire started last
week were expected to weaken.