Elbow Creek Fire, now 43 percent contained
By Paul Hall on Wednesday, July 28th, 2021 in Columbia Basin News Columbia Basin Top Stories Eastern/Southeast Oregon News Eastern/Southeast Oregon Top Stories Northeastern Oregon News Northeastern Oregon Top Stories
Wallowa, OR – The Elbow Creek Fire is approximately 22,901 acres and 43 percent contained. Firefighting personnel and equipment continue to arrive, filling most fire line resource needs.
Crews continued with burnouts in the east side of Elbow Creek and working grids to locate and suppress any spot fires in the area. Work by firefighters is now transitioning to mop up and patrol along with all Divisions, while ongoing work continues on known, scattered hot areas such as those discovered in dozer berms along fire lines.
Aiding in this work is the use of handheld infrared heat detection cameras to locate hot spots not readily visible.
Besides risks normally thought of with regard to firefighting, other environmental risks are showing up with more frequency now, specifically stinging insects and poisonous snakes.
Strict Covid precautions are being observed within the Incident Command Center and the Fire Camp, not only to reduce risk to firefighters but also to the community.
Very light rain occurred over portions of the fire area last night with no significant, long-term effect on burning conditions. Lightning did occur broadly over the region last night with none observed in the fire vicinity. Today’s weather is expected to be mostly cloudy with some smoke and haze, and a slight chance of showers and thunderstorms. Temperatures will be slightly warmer with highs between 87 and 93 degrees, and relative humidity from 15 to 25 percent. Afternoon winds will be from the southwest at 3 to 7 mph with gusts to 15.
Evacuation levels within Wallowa County remain unchanged for now. Additional information on evacuation levels is available on the Wallowa County Sheriff’s Office Facebook page (www.facebook.com/Wallowa-County-Sheriffs-Office-147212815486187).
