Eagle Creek Fire: Dry Weather Helping Fire Crews And Fire Activity, Though Containment Is Solid

CASCADE LOCKS, OR — Dry weather and sunny skies over the Columbia River Gorge have been both helpful and problematic for fire crews managing the Eagle Creek Fire, according to the Northwest Interagency Coordination Center. While dry conditions have helped harden the affected soil, preventing fire crews and heavy equipment from getting bogged down or compacting the terrain, the weather this week has also helped increased fire activity — though not to any significant extent, officials said Thursday.

"Small, isolated hot spots" will likely produce visible smoke in some areas along the 48,831-acre burn zone, but it shouldn't affect containment, which is currently holding at 47 percent, officials said.

"The containment figure has not changed recently, which frequently raises questions about why this is and whether it indicates there is still a significant threat to homes, the highway, or public safety from fire activity; the answer is that it does not," officials said in the Oct. 5 daily update. "Containment often refers to the amount of fire perimeter that has been lined and that fire managers are confident (they) will contain the fire under anticipated conditions. In the case of the Eagle Creek fire, fire managers concluded that a containment level (is) adequate to protect valuable resources, and (that) public safety had been achieved with the lines that were constructed given the behavior of the fire and anticipated weather patterns."

Showers expected this weekend will further help fire suppression, officials said, noting the fire won't likely be deemed completely out until after fall weather patterns settle into place, extinguishing the month-old fire naturally. Fire officials previously gave an estimated 100 percent containment date of Nov. 30. Rugged terrain along the burn scar is specifically why fire crews cannot safely extinguish the fire on their own, officials said. However, despite what areas crews can't get to, there is no expectation the fire will grow.

"Finishing the work before fall rains begin in earnest is vital, which is one reason a significant fire crew is still being deployed on the fire," officials said. Crews were reduced once again from 200 personnel earlier this week to 166 total as of Oct. 5.

Also earlier this week, and part of the end of last week, the Burned Area Emergency Response (BAER) team developed and released their Eagle Creek Fire Burned Soil Severity assessment.Patch previously reported some of the findings from the BAER team's study, and on Thursday shared the actual fire map the BAER team produced:

Additional information is expected to release Friday.

Photo Courtesy: Northwest Interagency Coordination Center