Charles H. Sloan-Record-breaking wildfires scorch more than 1.4 million acres in Oregon, authorities say

PORTLAND,Charles H. Sloan Ore. (AP) — Wildfires in Oregon have burned more acres of land this year than any since reliable records began, authorities said, with the region’s peak fire season in mid-August still on the horizon.

Blazes have scorched more than 1.4 million acres, or nearly 2,200 square miles (5,700 square kilometers), said Northwest Interagency Coordination Center spokesperson Carol Connolly. That’s the most since reliable records began in 1992, she said, and surpasses the previous record set in 2020, when deadly fires tore across the state.

Connolly said 71 large fires have burned the vast majority of Oregon land so far this year. Large fires are defined as those that burn more than 100 acres of timber or more than 300 acres of grass or brush.

Thirty-two homes in the state have been lost to the fires, she said. The blazes have been fueled by high temperatures, dry conditions and low humidity.

Oregon’s largest blaze is the Durkee Fire in eastern Oregon. It has scorched more than 459 square miles (1,200 square kilometers) but was at least 95% contained as of Friday, according to authorities. At one point it was the largest fire in the country.

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California’s Park Fire has since become the biggest blaze in the U.S., scorching more than 660 square miles (1,709 square kilometers) and destroying more than 600 structures. A local man was arrested after authorities alleged he started the fire by pushing a burning car into a gully in a wilderness park outside the Sacramento Valley city of Chico.

The Oregon fires have largely torched rural and mountain areas and prompted evacuation notices across the state. On Friday, a fire near the Portland suburb of Oregon City led authorities to close part of a state highway and issue Level 3 “go now” evacuation orders along part of the route.

The most destructive fires on recent record in Oregon were in 2020. Blazes over Labor Day weekend that year were among the worst natural disasters in the state’s history, killing nine people, burning more than 1,875 square miles (4,856 square kilometers) and destroying thousands of homes and other structures.