Vale Bureau of Land Management transferring Badlands Complex Fires to complex incident management team
By Joe Hathaway on Wednesday, July 24th, 2024 in Northeastern Oregon News
BAKER COUNTY – (Release by Vale BLM)Vale firefighters and partners are working around the clock to suppress multiple wildfires sparked by lightning east of Interstate 84 between Durkee and Richland called the Badlands Complex.
Rocky Mountain 2 Complex Incident Management Team will in brief Wednesday morning, spend the day with Vale BLM fire personnel to familiarize themselves with the operation, and assume command of the complex Thursday morning. Bringing in a team gives Vale BLM access to additional resources and frees up local resources to manage other fires on the district and respond to new starts.
Throughout the day Tuesday, firefighting resources concentrated their efforts on structure protection, including homes and outbuildings in and around Plano Road, Sicily Creek and Daly Creek.
These properties are threatened by the Thompson Fire — previously the Thompson, North Thompson, Gold Creek and Crandall fires, which merged Monday night — and was estimated to be 10-to-12,000 acres this evening.
Also within the complex are the Coyote, Wood Creek, Williams Creek, and Sheep Mountain fires. The Timber Canyon and Powder Fires, located 5 miles southwest of Richland, have burned together and are now the Powder Fire. The Coyote Fire, located between the Snake River and Snake River Road 5 miles southeast of Richland, was estimated at 3,000 acres tonight.
Six dozers, 14 engines, 10 crews, and 8 smokejumpers were assigned to the fires at midday. Additional resources had been ordered and were en route. In addition to structure protection efforts, crews are making progress establishing line at the north end of the Coyote Fire. Heavy smoke around Durkee prevented aviation resources from assisting with the Thompson Fire. Clearer skies allowed two scoopers and a Black to assist with checking the east flank of the Powder Fire.
Baker County Sheriff’s Office has issued a Level 3 – Go Now evacuation order for the area south of Powder River and Brownlee Reservoir to Huntington, and east of Iron Mountain Road and Timber Canyon to the Snake River. A Level 1 – Be Ready evacuation notice has been issued for the area south of Dry Gulch Road to the Powder River.
The town of Richland IS NOT currently under an evacuation order.
Malheur County Sheriff’s Office has issued a Level 2 – Be Set evacuation notice for the rangeland area east of I-84 to Highway 201 and extending southward.
Updated information can be found on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/BadlandsComplex/. An Inciweb page, fire information phone number and email address will be established soon.
