SALEM, Ore. – The fast-moving Lone Rock Fire in Gilliam, Morrow, and Wheeler counties is Oregon’s latest conflagration. On Monday, Governor Tina Kotek invoked the Emergency Conflagration Act. The Oregon State Fire Marshal has been actively engaged on the fire with its partner agencies. Over the weekend, the OSFM sent resources through Immediate Response.
The OSFM’s Red Incident Management Team will be in unified command with Northwest Team 2 starting at 10 Tuesday morning. Structural task forces from Benton, Clackamas, Lane, Linn, Marion, Multnomah, and Yamhill counties are assigned to the fire. The Linn County task force was sent Sunday along with other resources through Immediate Response, a tool the OSFM uses to send firefighters and equipment outside of a conflagration.
“The next few days are going to be extremely challenging with excessive heat, red flag warnings, and forecasted lightning,” Oregon State Fire Marshal Mariana Ruiz-Temple said. “We are watching the weather forecast closely and have plans in place if new fires start.”
The Lone Rock Fire 10 miles southeast of Condon sparked on July 13. Gusty winds and dry conditions pushed the fire to grow to more than 30,000 acres as of last report.
The OSFM is actively battling the fire along with its partners from the Oregon Department of Forestry, the Bureau of Land Management, and local responders.
The Gilliam, Morrow, and Wheeler counties sheriffs’ offices have levels 2 and 3 evacuations in place.
Because the threat to homes near the Cow Valley Fire in Malheur County has diminished, the OSFM was able to demobilize and reassign their Red Incident Management Team and several of the task forces.
As the team gets settled in, the OSFM will post updates about the fire to the OSFM Incident Information blog and its social media channels.