Oregon wildfires have burned more acres of land in 2024 than in any other year since reliable records began, authorities said Friday, with the peak of the fire season still to come in mid-August.
The fires have burned more than 5,700 square kilometers (2,200 square miles), said Carol Connolly, spokeswoman for the Northwest Interagency Coordination Center. That’s more than any year since 1992, when reliable records were kept, she said. It surpasses the previous record set in 2020.
Connolly said 71 large fires have destroyed most of the country this year. Large fires are defined as those that destroy more than 40 hectares (almost 100 acres) of forest or more than 120 hectares (almost 300 acres) of grass or scrub.
The fires, which were fueled by high temperatures, dry weather and low humidity, destroyed 32 homes in the state, she said.
They prompted evacuation orders across the state and primarily set rural and mountainous areas ablaze, but some fires also broke out closer to the Portland metropolitan area.
On Friday, the small town of Cherry Grove, about 35 miles west of Portland, was under Level 3 “leave immediately” evacuation orders because of a fire raging in a nearby forest. David Huey, a deputy with the Washington County Sheriff’s Office, said most residents were evacuated after officers went door to door asking them to leave.
Planes and helicopters were scooping up water from nearby Henry Hagg Lake to drop on the fire, said Gert Zoutendijk, spokesman for the Gaston Rural Fire District. The lake was expected to remain closed to the public through the weekend.
The fire covered an area of about 1.3 square kilometers (half a square mile) and was not under control as of Friday afternoon, although emergency crews had made progress in containing the fire, Zoutendijk said.
Another fire near the Portland suburb of Oregon City prompted authorities to temporarily close part of a state highway in the morning and issue evacuation orders on part of the route, effective immediately. However, in the afternoon, authorities downgraded the evacuation measures and reopened the road.
The largest blaze is the Durkee Fire in eastern Oregon, which has burned more than 1,200 square kilometers (459 square miles) but was at least 95 percent contained as of Friday, according to authorities. At one point, it was the largest fire in the country.
The park fire in California is now the largest, burning more than 660 square miles (1,710 square kilometers) and destroying over 600 buildings. A man has been arrested and accused of starting the fire by pushing a burning car into a ravine in a wilderness park outside the Sacramento Valley city of Chico.
Also in California, the Crozier Fire in El Dorado County has burned about 7.7 square kilometers (3 square miles) and was 5% contained as of Friday evening, according to Cal Fire. The fire is raging in steep and rugged terrain and is threatening 4,017 structures. The weather is expected to remain hot and dry through the weekend.
