I am reading incident commander reports and outlines of strategies to attack fires....and what I am reading in Central Oregon is blowing my mind! There are four major incidents in close proximity to each other. The Bingham Complex, the Bridge 99 Complex, the Logging Unit Complex on the Warm Springs Reservation, and the Shaniko Butte Fire on the Warm Springs Reservation. In reading the IC report from the Logging Unit Complex a scary scenario has emerged. The IC of the Logging Unit and the Warm Springs Reservation Fire Command are deeply worried about the four incidents merging into one giant mega fire. This is closest to happening with the Bingham Complexes eastern most fire the Lizard Fire merging with the Bear Butte 2 fire out of the Bridge 99 Complex and then with the fires in the Logging Complex. If the combined major fire that results from that then moves east, (and all these fires have had an eastward track), then it is possible that the new mega fire could jump Highway 26 and make a run to the Shaniko Fire merging with it. That would create a mega fire of somewhere close to 800,000 - 900,000 acres. This is the kind of stuff that ICs get gray hair just thinking about. It is worse in this case because it is so very possible. These fires are burning towards each other. Some merging creating larger fires is going to happen. Not sure if the worst case scenario of the mega fire will develop, but it is not out of the realm of possible right now.
Posted on: Sat, 19 Jul 2014 18:58:00 +0000
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