Firefighters reining in huge Oregon forest blaze
Date: 22-Aug-02
Country: USA
The Biscuit fire has so far consumed 470,000 acres (190,000 hectares) of forest near the Oregon-California border but is now 50 percent contained, said Mark Wilkening, a spokesman for the Bureau of Land Management.
"We've had cooler temperatures and different winds," he said. "We're much more optimistic but still weeks away from full containment."
An evacuation warning for residents of the Illinois Valley, nearly 100 miles (160 km) south of Eugene, Oregon, was lifted yesterday although residents of several small hamlets remained on alert in case conditions changed.
The Biscuit fire, formerly called the Florence fire before it merged with some smaller fires, was ignited by lightning in mid-July and quickly spread through the Illinois Valley forests and grasslands, fueled by arid weather and dense brush.
It is believed to be the worst in Oregon's recorded history and is more than twice as large as Alaska's Reindeer fire, which at 210,000 acres (85,000 hectares) is the next biggest active blaze in the United States.
With firefighters setting controlled burns to create containment lines, Wilkening said much of the eastern flank and southern portion of the fire, which extended into California, has been fully contained.
About 6,600 people backed by 40 helicopters, 239 engines and 97 bulldozers are fighting the fire, which has cost $84.5 million to fight so far.
A total of 5,955,038 acres (2,409,968 hectares) have burned in the United States this year, more than twice the area scorched during the same period last year, making this one of the worst fire seasons in recent memory.