Bootleg Fire perimeter over 200 miles long and growing
/Bootleg Fire update for July 16, 2021
With extreme wildfire behavior causing large fire growth, crews, engines and heavy equipment pulled off the #BootlegFire front lines and regrouped. Summer Lake remains in a Level 2 "Ready". In this field report, retired smokejumper and Bootleg Fire Public Information Officer Jacob Welsh narrates from the front lines earlier this afternoon. (July 15, 2021)
FIRE DETAILS
Cause:
Under Investigation
Size:
241,497 Acres
Containment: 7%
Location:
28 Miles northeast of Klamath Falls, Ore.
Resources:
Personnel: 1,921
Fuels:
Heavy Timber, grass, and understory.
Initial Report:
1:45 PM, July 6, 2021
Last Updated:
10:30 AM, July 16, 2021
Bootleg Fire Public Information Map (July 16, 2021)
Click to enlarge. Download PDF.
Coverage of the 2021 Wildfire Season is brought to you by Ace Towing.
KLAMATH FALLS, Ore. - For the fourth day in a row, firefighters withdrew from leading edges of the Bootleg Fire as extreme fire conditions fueled expansive fire growth. In the late afternoon, a large pyrocumulus cloud ‘collapsed’ further spreading embers to the east of the main fire and prompting additional evacuation notices for the communities of Summer Lake and Spring Lake in Lake County.
Crews worked through the night to get dozer lines around spot fires over the 34 Road to the southeastern edge of the fire. To the north, crews continued to work against very active surface fire, spotting up to a half mile ahead of the main fire, and dry southern winds.
“The Bootleg Fire perimeter is more than 200 miles long- that’s an enormous amount of line to build and hold.” said Rob Allen, Incident Commander for the Pacific Northwest Area Incident Management Team 2. “We are continuing to use every resource from dozers to air tankers to engage where it’s safe to do so especially with the hot, dry, windy conditions predicted to worsen into the weekend.”
On Thursday, firefighters made excellent progress on the southern edge of the fire as winds pushed the fire back into itself.
On the fire’s western edge, firefighters continue to successfully hold the existing containment lines and are patrolling for any remaining hotspots near the fireline. In addition, several crews will continue working to protect and wrap houses towards Paisley and Summer Lake as a precaution ahead of potential fire growth toward those communities over the coming days.
Additional structural firefighters will arrive today to assist the east side of the fire with structure protection.
Bootleg Fire night burn. FS34 slop over. (Image: Jason Pettigrew, Inciweb)
Community Meeting
A virtual community meeting is planned for 6:30 PM, July 16, 2021. Watch the live stream at www.facebook.com/BootlegFireInfo or on the newly created Bootleg Fire YouTube page.
EVACUATION INFORMATION
Evacuations are rapidly changing due to the nature of this wildfire. Visit the interactive evacuations map at klamathfallsnews.org/bootleg-fire-evacuations.
Evacuation Center
Klamath County Fairgrounds (in Klamath Falls), South 6th Street entrance only.
CLOSURES
The Fremont-Winema National Forest is closed to the public in the fire area. Map and full order are available here.
SMOKE
Heavy smoke is expected with widespread impacts to communities and State Route 140 in Oregon between Chiloquin and Bly. View the full smoke report at fires.airfire.org/outlooks/southcentraloregon.
Aerial View of Bootleg Fire Containment Line. July 14, 2021 (Image: Inciweb)
SIGNIFICANT EVENTS
Extreme, crowning, running, spotting. Fire remains very active with significant acreage increases due to hot, dry, and breezy conditions, and plume-dominated fire behavior. Poor humidity recovery at night is contributing to active fire spread through the night time period. Robust spread rates are being generated by drought-affected fuels. Expecting similar conditions for the next several days.
PROJECTED INCIDENT ACTIVITY
The fire will continue to be extremely active in unchecked portions of the perimeter, with unstable air conditions and extremely dry fuels.
HOW BIG IS THE FIRE?
As of today, July 16, 2021, the Bootleg Fire is the largest fire burning in the United States at 241,497 acres. The fire is equal to 377.3 square miles. That is larger than the entirety of Crater Lake National Park, and nearly 16 times the size of the 242 Fire that burned in Chiloquin last summer.
Information is provided by the Fremont-Winema National Forest, Klamath County Emergency Management, Oregon Department of Forestry, and Northwest IMT 10 is current as of 10:30 AM, July 16, 2021.
Klamath Falls News will continue to follow the situation and provide updates as they become available.
MORE INFO: Cascade Firewatch: Bootleg Fire 2021
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