Federal wildfire officials say eight major fires are burning more than 220,000 acres in Washington and Oregon. That doesn’t count several other fires burning in Idaho. The Northwest Interagency Coordinating Center says four of the region’s largest fires are in southern Oregon, including the largest, the Bootleg fire.

The North Cascades Highway west of Winthrop is closing because of wildfire. Monday morning’s decision by the Washington Department of Transportation to close State Route 20 between mileposts 170 and 177 is expected to last at least through the end of the day. Pictures from the highway near the Early Winters campground show flames and smoke erupting from the forest.

Firefighters were working in extreme temperatures across the U.S. West and struggling to contain wildfires, the largest burning in California and Oregon, as another heat wave baked the region, straining power grids. The largest wildfire of the year in California — the Beckwourth Complex — was raging along the Nevada state line and has burned about 134 square miles as state regulators asked consumers to voluntarily “conserve as much electricity as possible” to avoid any outages starting Monday afternoon. In Oregon, the Bootleg Fire exploded to 224 square miles as it raced through heavy timber in the Fremont-Winema National Forest, near the Klamath County town of Sprague River. The fire disrupted service on three transmission lines providing up to 5,500 megawatts of electricity to neighboring California.

YAKIMA COUNTY -- As of 8:50 p.m. on Saturday, Yakima Valley Emergency Management has issued Level 2 and Level 3 Evacuations for the area north of Roza Hill Drive, East of North 57th Avenue, South of the Yakima Training Center, and along Chapman Road. Residents are advised to evacuate now or be ready to evacuate as the fire continues to move south towards Terrace Heights. Firefighters are working diligently to slow this fire down but weather conditions are working against them, according to emergency management.

Spokane keeps setting ominous weather records this year. The region in 2021 had its driest, and second hottest, Feb. 1 through July 10 stretch since record-keeping began in 1881, according to the National Weather Service. And the unwelcome weather isn’t letting up soon, with 100-degree days and no rain forecast this week. Wilson said 2021 has been one of the hottest, driest years in the region’s history. The stretch from Feb. 1 through July 10 has been the second hottest Spokane has ever seen, behind only 2015 – which was the worst wildfire year in state history. “Acres burned are mostly highly correlated to the summertime temperatures, so it’s not a good thing that we see temperatures of this magnitude,” Wilson said.

Klamath County sheriff’s deputies began handing out citations and issued a stern warning that they may start arresting people who refuse to follow evacuation orders as the intense Bootleg fire continues to burn national forestland and threaten several small southern Oregon towns. The wildfire grew to around 148,000 acres by Sunday afternoon after dangerous conditions Saturday prompted firefighters to pull back and move to safety zones. Crews were back on the fire lines Sunday.

PENDLETON (July 10, 2021) – Firefighters continue suppression efforts on the Green Ridge Fire, which has now burned approximately 143 acres on the Pomeroy Ranger District. The Green Ridge Fire, which is located approximately 30 miles east of Walla Walla, Washington, is comprised of two wildfires burning in steep, rugged terrain, consisting of mostly timber, grass and shrubs. Values at risk include structures in the area. Yesterday’s fire behavior consisted of active upslope runs, spotting and torching. Steep ground with rolling rocks and burning material is adding to fire growth and containment difficulties. Firefighters, aided by aerial resources, focused suppression efforts on protecting the values at risk and establishing containment lines to slow the spread of the fire.

CHILOQUIN — Two wildfires in southern Oregon doubled in size by Saturday morning, bringing widespread smoke across the southern half of the state. The Bootleg fire in Klamath County grew from 61 square miles on Friday to almost 119 square miles on Saturday in the Fremont-Winema National Forest and on private land.

ASOTIN, Wash. — Emergency first responders and fire crews from throughout Southeast Washington are combatting a string of wildfires that were caused by passing thunderstorms on Wednesday morning. According to a press release from the U.S. Department of Agriculture — Forest Service, authorities from the Pomeroy Ranger District are hard at work trying to contain wildfires across the Umatilla National Forest. As a result, authorities have closed Forest Service Road (FSR) 41, FSR 43 and, FSR 44 along with all trails within the closure. By this point, the Lick Creek Fire has burned over 2,600 acres of National Forest land. Now, that fire has converged with the Dry Gulch Fire, which began on Washington Department of Natural Resources (DNR) land nearby.

Last week, a “thousand-year” heat wave baked the Pacific Northwest and adjacent British Columbia with widespread highs topping 100 degrees, resulting in a death toll in the hundreds. The Canadian province’s Lytton climbed to 121 degrees and established new national records three days in a row before the town burned in heat-intensified wildfires. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced Friday that the heat wave helped the United States clinch its hottest June on record. Eight states had their hottest Junes, including Arizona, California, Nevada and Utah.

The Batterman Fire burning in Douglas County reduced to an estimated 14,100 acres with 80% containment as of Friday morning, according to the Northwest Incident Management Team mobilized to help fight the fire. Level 3, 2, 1 evacuation notices were issued for homes near the brush fire that started burning Sunday in Douglas County.

EPHRATA — Crews contained a roughly 150-acre brush fire northwest of Ephrata late last night. Grant County Fire District 13 reported making progress containing the lightning-caused fire with the help of a farmer and their tractor disc, according to a Fire District 13 Facebook post. Firefighters had “significantly reduced” the fire by the end of the night, reported the fire district.

LIND, Wash. — Washington State University researchers are assessing the losses after a wildfire burned a portion of the dryland research station. The fire started shortly before 11 a.m. June 27, east of Lind, about half a mile away from the station. It burned a total of 2,100 acres.

It is perhaps ironic that when cool, cloudy air floods western Washington as it did yesterday, winds surge in eastern Washington, leading to the potential of rapid wildfire growth.

It's been more than three weeks since Seattle had measurable rainfall, and the impacts are showing.

Did you know that wildfire can affect forest soils? The effect of fire on trees, shrubs, and herbaceous (non-woody) plants are easily visible. It is not so easy, however, to see the effect wildfire has on the forest soil. There is more under your feet than what you see with the naked eye. Whole communities of organisms live in the soil contributing to the health of the forest itself.

WENATCHEE — The National Weather Service has issued a fire weather watch for North Central Washington due to forecasted winds and potential thunderstorms come Wednesday. The weather watch goes into effect at midnight and is set to last through Wednesday evening.

Once wildfires start, one of the ways they spread is through firebrands that blow into unburned areas. Despite their importance in spreading fires, relatively little is known about how many firebrands different kinds of vegetation generate during wildfires. “If you want to understand how to control (wildfire) or contain it or prevent it, it’s helpful to know how it spreads,” he says.

Firefighters at the blaze near Cheney, now called the Andrus Fire, held growth at 300 acres overnight, but the fire is still 0% contained as of Tuesday morning. Evacuation orders were updated Tuesday morning to a region that spanned from Hallett Road to the north to Andrus Road to the south. The western boundary of the map included Fruitvale road and Taylor road. To the east, the area reached Grove Road before cutting back west toward Andrus Road.

EAST WENATCHEE, Wash. — The Batterman Fire, which started about noon on the Fourth of July, grew to 7,900 acres by Monday evening, burning brush and grass in steep terrain near East Wenatchee and Rock Island. About 10% of the fire’s perimeter was contained, and firefighters burned the west side of Rock Island Grade to hold the fire’s southeastern line, according to the Southeast Washington Interagency Incident Management Team out of Pasco.

As the area comes off a record-breaking heatwave, almost every jurisdiction in the Inland Northwest has some sort of fireworks ban in place to prevent wildfires. Even in counties that don’t have a ban, officials have been urging the public to refrain from putting on their own display and go watch a professional show instead, though the city of Spokane announced Thursday that four of its planned fireworks shows were canceled because of the fire risk.

When wildfires rage across the landscape, whether on grasslands or in forests, the massive plumes of smoke that rise into the air and travel for miles can carry more than a thousand different types of microbes with them. Yet until University of Idaho associate professor Leda Kobziar came along, there was essentially no research on what bacteria and fungi might be carried in that smoke, how far those microbes might travel, or how they might impact soil ecology both where the fire started and where the microbes land.

With temperatures soaring in the triple digits, the National Weather Service in Seattle issued a Red Flag Warning for Lewis County and other areas of Western Washington on Sunday.  The …

A national organization has set its fire-risk level for the country at 4 out of 5, prompting fire officials in Eastern Washington to warn the community about the risks of a hot, dry and fiery summer. Candice Stevenson, public information officer at the National Interagency Fire Center, said the fire preparedness levels guide where the national organization sends its resources, and how much will go to each region.