The terrain at one Oregon wildfire is so forbidding and the vegetation so dry that veteran firefighters expect it to grow more than fivefold and burn until autumn — unless there’s rain in the meantime.
The area of the Big Windy fire centered 25 miles northwest of Grants Pass was reported Tuesday at more than 9,000 acres, about 14 square miles.
Veteran fire officials told the Medford Mail Tribune their best-guess scenario is it will expand to nearly 50,000 acres by the fall, about 78 square miles — if firefighters can keep the complex of three blazes from jumping the lines they’re trying to establish.
“We’re going to live with these fires until October 15th or later,” said Dan Thorpe, forester in charge of the state Department of Forestry’s southwest district and a veteran of 41 fire seasons.
The fire is in the Siskiyous, a range that’s part of the Klamath Mountains straddling southwest Oregon and Northern California. It’s one of five major fires burning in southwest Oregon. The largest, the Douglas Complex, is burning to the northeast on about 60 square miles.
From The Greenwich Time: https://www.greenwichtime.com/news/science/article/Fire-leaders-say-S-Ore-blaze-will-grow-fivefold-4709841.php