Fire biggest in Oregon in 100 years

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A wildfire burning in southeastern Oregon has become the state's largest blaze in more than a century, charring more than 800 square miles of a sparsely populated region of the state.

The Long Draw Fire has surpassed the size of the Biscuit Fire that scorched about 780 square miles of the Siskiyou National Forest in 2002. It's the largest Oregon blaze since the mid-1800s, officials said.

It's one of two large blazes burning near Oregon's borders with Nevada and Idaho. Another has threatened a handful of homes near Harney Lake, and authorities recommended that residents evacuate.

The larger Long Draw Fire has burned up to the west rim of the Owyhee Canyon and firefighters were trying to keep it from jumping to the other side, where a the small community of Jordan Valley is located, said Trish Hogervorst, a spokeswoman.

The blaze has charred rangeland structures like fences and telephone poles, Hogervorst said, but there are very few homes in the area. The fire is about 50 percent contained, but crews were concerned about forecasts showing so-called dry lighting, which strikes without rain.

"When it hits the ground, everything's so tinder dry it automatically starts a new fire," Hogervorst said.

At 515,000 acres, the blaze is Oregon's largest in memory, said Brian Ballou, a fire prevention specialist at the Oregon Department of Forestry who has written extensively about the state's fire history. A fire in the 1840s ravaged 800,000 acres in the Coast Range, Ballou said. A U.S. Geologic Survey map published around 1900 showed a fire burned 1 million acres in the Cascades in the mid-19th century, but researchers believe the area was more likely charred in separate blazes.

Officials said two families have declined to evacuate from the Harney Lake area threatened by the smaller Miller Homestead Fire. Residents in nearby Frenchglen, an unincorporated community with a couple of businesses and about a half-dozen homes, have been told to be ready to leave on short notice.

Crews brought in three helicopters to help battle the blaze that has spread quickly through grass and sagebrush since igniting on Sunday. The fire was 10 percent contained on Friday morning after burning nearly 160,000 acres.

Daytime weather conditions are still conducive to fire, but firefighters have been able to make progress at night, said spokeswoman Ada Takacf.

"The weather conditions now, they're giving us an opportunity to really make great strides in the evening," Takacf said.

Crews were building fire lines and trying to keep the blaze from crossing State Route 205. The road was briefly closed but had been re-opened with a pilot car.

The Red Cross has set up an evacuation shelter at a motel in Burns, about 60 miles north of Frenchglen. Displaced residents parked two campers in the motel parking lot but nobody has required a room, said Tom Farley, director of the Red Cross chapter in Bend.

The agency is prepared to offer food, shelter, medication, eyeglasses, comfort and other support that displaced residents may need, Farley said.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press