Weather and Fire Behavior: A strong ridge of high pressure is anchored over the State and will continue to deliver unseasonably warm and dry weather. Light easterly winds in the morning will become terrain driven by the afternoon and strong morning inversions will be in place. Smoke from California wildfires could impact the area today. Vegetation will also continue to dry out, but fire behavior will be limited due to recent precipitation. Large logs, deep duff and sheltered areas will continue to retain heat. The fire activity will continue to be creeping, smoldering, and some smoke will be visible. Growth of the fire is not anticipated due to effects of the moisture we received last week. Humidity levels are expected to remain low with predicted levels as low as 15% at higher elevations.
Yesterday: Firefighters continued to monitor and patrol the fire perimeter and directly engage where heat is encountered near the fireline. In addition, mop-up and improvement of fire lines continued with vegetation removal. Mop-up is when fire crews work by hand checking for any sources of heat, using hand tools to spread out debris and water to extinguish any smoldering fire activity, ensuring the areas along the fire perimeter are out and cold. On the north side of the fire, equipment operators completed line improvement. East winds combined with low relative humidity continued to dry out fuels and produced additional smoke, however no fire perimeter growth occurred.
Today’s Activities: On the west side of the fire, firefighters are continuing to mop-up areas at risk by improving handlines and dozer lines. On the southern end, patrols will continue to mop-up areas and minimize fire risks. Efforts in the eastern end include chipping operations to reduce vegetation. The focus of firefighter patrol is to ensure hazard trees are removed, address vegetative debris smoldering near structures and improve firelines. Heavy equipment work continues along roads with chippers and masticators to improve existing containment and contingency firelines on the south and west side of the fire. The northeastern portion of the fire will be monitored by air. The fire perimeters on Riverside and Beachie Creek Fires total approximately 800 miles in length. This is a comparable distance to the drive between Portland, Oregon and Salt Lake City, Utah.
Despite recent rains and cooler temperatures fire season and regulated-use closure are still in effect for lands protected by the Oregon Department of Forestry in Clackamas, Marion, and Linn counties. Backyard burning is prohibited during fire season; other restrictions for outdoor activities can be found at https://gisapps.odf.oregon.gov/firerestrictions/PFR.html.
Evacuations: All evacuation levels have been lifted for the Riverside Fire by Clackamas County.
Riverside Fire Information Officer
Email: 2020.riverside@firenet.gov
Riverside Fire Info: inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/7174/
Phone: 509-228-7805 (public)
Facebook: facebook.com/RiversideFireInfo
Twitter: twitter.com/fire_riverside Tags: #RiversideFire #ClackamasWildfires
Real-time evacuation updates at: https://twitter.com/ClackCoSheriff and https://www.clackamas.us/wildfires
