Incident Commanders: Ian Yocum, Oregon State Fire Marshal
Jake Akerberg, Bureau of Land Management
Contact: Rich Tyler 541-239-3619, OSFM Public Information Officer
Follow Fire Information on local Facebook Pages:
Gilliam County Sheriff https://www.facebook.com/GilliamCountySheriff/
South Gilliam County Rural Fire Protection District https://www.facebook.com/South-Gilliam-County-Rural-Fire-Protection-District-783137915065669/?ref=br_rs
[Condon, Oregon] Good progress was made last night on the fires in South Gilliam County. The weather was cool with some associated precipitation, allowing the firefighters to get ahead of the fires in many areas. The fires now total 30,500 acres with 20% containment. There are 119 firefighters on the incident. There is a Community Meeting scheduled for tonight in Lonerock at 7:00PM in the Lonerock Community Hall. At last night’s community meeting in Condon, Emergency Manager Chris Fitzsimmons stated, “This is the first time the State Fire Marshal’s Office has been in our community under a Conflagration and we are very thankful for all the great work that has been accomplished in the past 2 days!”
Today will be a day of transition and growth at the Incident Command Post at the Gilliam County Fairgrounds with the arrival of the Type 2 Incident Management Team. NW Team 7 will be fully integrated in Unified Command with Oregon State Fire Marshal’s Blue Team by 6:00 AM Tuesday and the crews will work side-by-side with our local partners.
Wildland firefighters will continue to hold and improve existing containment lines on the fires today, and work to stop the forward progress of the fire on the active sides. Air support continues to be available to maximize efforts of crews on the ground. Firefighters will continue to be challenged by light flashy fuels, steep slopes along the John Day River Canyon and afternoon winds.
With a combination of smoke from Washington and Canadian wildfires, as well as fires burning in Oregon, air quality indices are showing areas of unhealthy to hazardous air across the eastern part of the state. Many factors influence a person’s sensitivity to smoke, including severity and duration of smoke exposure and a person’s health. Smoke may worsen symptoms for people who have pre-existing health conditions and those who are particularly sensitive to air pollution. You can find a link to the DEQ Air Quality Index on https://www.centraloregonfire.org/ as well as tips about dealing with smoke.
There is a Red Flag warning for fire weather from 11:00AM until 9:00PM for critical winds and low humidity. All tactics and operations will keep this in mind in order to provide for firefighter safety at all times.
A Task Force was sent to the Jennie’s Peak fire in Wheeler County last night to assist with structural protection on approximately 20 homes in the area. This Task Force returned to South Gilliam County this morning.
