THE DALLES, Ore. — Crews battling the Mosier Creek Fire were able to contain the slight uptick in acreage Thursday and throughout Friday they were able to increase containment from 10% to 30%.
The estimated size by Friday night was 985 acres. About 560 homes are threatened; evacuation orders have not changed since Thursday. The fire broke out Wednesday and was human-caused.
Winds had spread the fire a bit to the east and south on Thursday, but crews focused on the fire line and kept it from building dramatically, according to Oregon Department of Forestry (ODF) spokesperson Rich Tyler.
He said the slight increase in size was due to a "flopover" spot fire, coupled with the controlled burning that crews were using along the dozer lines at the south and east edges of the fire.
Background: Mosier Creek Fire 30% contained at 985 acres
Tyler said the support, patience and understanding of residents in Mosier and in The Dalles has been key in fighting the wildfire and in continuing the fight against COVID-19.
"Being able to coexist in a community and being responsible in that coexistence between the community and the fire crews is important," he said. "We've had fires here in the past. We haven't done it with COVID. So, everybody just working together and being gracious and being responsible is really helping, so we appreciate that."
Tyler said four structures have burned: Two were homes and the other two had not yet been identified.
"The families that did lose their homes, our heart goes out to them," he said. "When you lose your home, it is a tragedy. But at the same time we want to commend them for getting out. Life safety is the most important thing, and they were able to grab their stuff and get out safely, where there were no injuries or no deaths."
One of the homes that burned belonged to the Hart family. Joel Hart said everyone was able to get out safely but everything left back at the home appears to be gone.
"We came up [Thursday] with some trucks thinking might be able to grab some tools and stuff like that, and there’s nothing. Everything’s melted to the ground," said Hart.
ODF spokesperson Tyler said heat will go up this weekend and humidity will go down, which usually means bad news for fire crews. But he was confident that lowering wind speed Friday and throughout the weekend would make up for the other two factors.
An Air Quality Alert was issued Thursday for The Dalles and Mosier through at least Saturday, but by Friday afternoon the air quality in The Dalles was listed as good.
Text WILDFIRE to 503-226-5088 for the latest information on the Mosier Creek Fire