Biggest blaze in US merges with smaller Oregon fire
Date: 12-Aug-02
Country: USA
Dry winds were expected to keep fueling the Florence fire over the weekend, the U.S. Forest Service said. The blaze has so far destroyed 331,000 acres (134,000 hectares) of dense, bush, forests and grasslands.
"The two fires are only touching in some places, but we're no longer fighting them separately," said Deryl Jevons, a U.S. Forest Service official.
Firefighting crews reinforced containment lines and local residents were kept on alert to evacuate after the Florence fire combined with the Sour Biscuit fire, in an area about 40 miles miles (64 km) wide located about 270 miles (435 km) south of Portland.
The fire, ignited by lightning in mid-July near Oregon's border with California, is threatening the communities of Cave Junction, Kerby, Selma, Agness, Gardner Ranch and McCaleb Ranch, Jevons said, with residents put on an eight-hour notice to evacuate.
Wildfires in Oregon and the Northwest have been particularly bad this year due to drought conditions.
A 255,000-acre (103,200) blaze is raging in Alaska.
The Florence fire has already consumed part of the Siskiyou National Forest and forestry officials issued a closure order for the Six Rivers National Forest last week.
Jevons said that more than 5,400 people were fighting the fire with 41 helicopters, 142 engines and 81 bulldozers.
"It's a pretty massive effort," he said.
Residents in Agness, a town of 120 people, were told that there was a 50 percent chance that the fire might reach their homes. Some residents were dousing their houses with water as they remained on standby to evacuate.
A total of 5,224,035 acres (2,114,135 hectares) have burned in the United States so far this year, more than three times the area scorched during the same period last year, making this one of the worst fire seasons in recent memory.
