Approximately 70 miles of Oregon’s crucial interstate connecting Portland to the state’s eastern reaches and neighboring Idaho was closed on July 27 due to one of the nearly two dozen wildfires blazing across the Pacific Northwest.
The Oregon Department of Transportation said that 70 miles of Interstate 84 between Baker City and Ontario was closed to traffic due to the Fox Fire, which as of July 27 has spread approximately 46,000 acres in the eastern portion of the state close to the Idaho state line. Other roads closed due to the fires have included parts of U.S. Highway 20 and U.S. Highway 26.
The fire has triggered the evacuation of more than 500 people from the town of Hutchinson and remains completely uncontained.
“I-84 has reopened in both directions between Baker City and Ontario, but wildfire remains active in the area,” the transportation department said on social media eight hours after the road’s closure. “Only one lane of I-84 is open westbound, so expect delays if traveling west. Conditions can change with little notice, so intermittent closures are still possible.”
The Fox Fire is just one of 47 reported wildfires spread across Oregon, 10 of which are considered large wildfires, and three of those remain completely uncontained as of July 27. The biggest in Oregon appears to be the Big Grass fire near Malheur, which has taken up 280,000 acres along the Oregon and Idaho border.
Along with Oregon’s fires, Washington State also has 32 reported wildfires blazing as of July 27. Idaho has 15, and California has 27, all according to the Western Fire Chiefs Association.
Based on these numbers, the Pacific Northwest has emerged as the epicenter of an unusually active year for wildfires.
“So far this year, 42,379 fires have burned more than 4 million acres across the United States,” the National Interagency Fire Center said on July 27. “Fire activity continues to be elevated in the Northwest Geographic Area, with 51 uncontained large fires and 18 Complex Incident Management Teams committed in Oregon and Washington.”
The intensity of the situation has reached a point where 74 fire management specialists from Australia and New Zealand have been called across the Pacific Ocean to help support the ongoing firefighting operations.
“The specialists will provide 30 days of operational support under longstanding bilateral arrangements for international wildfire assistance that have been in effect since 2002,” the Fire Center said in a statement. “These agreements build on decades of cooperation among wildland fire agencies in the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and Mexico, ensuring resources can be shared when fire activity demands additional capacity.”
Meanwhile, the weather in some areas is continuing to be uncooperative to their efforts.
“Areas of elevated conditions are expected from northeast California and far southeast Oregon into the northern Great Basin today from southwest winds 15-25 mph with gusts 25-35 mph amid relative humidity of 5-15 percent,” the fire center said in a statement. “Temperatures will be cooler today and closer to normal in the northern half of the West, and extensive smoke shading will result in temperatures 10-15 degrees cooler than they would otherwise be from central Oregon into central/northern Idaho and Montana.”
