Klamath County, Ore. — 170 people are now working to put out the ‘Draw’ fire.
Ken Gregor with the U.S. Forest Service said, “Today, we’re just concentrating on help securing the lines, and keeping them, keeping it in place where it’s at right now.”
The fire was sparked by a lightning storm Sunday night. Crews are battling difficult access, rugged terrain, and quickly changing weather conditions.
Jim Hampton with the Fremont/Winema National Forest said, “We’re getting a lot of swirly winds, a lot of gusty winds yesterday – it was, caused spotting from the main fire and a lot of extreme fire behavior.”
The fire is burning on Winema National Forest lands, and no homes or structures are threatened. But the areas hit by the fire have been hit hard. The Draw Fire has burned with such intensity that fire officials say 40 to 50 percent of it will require total stand replacement.
Crews are monitoring the fire closely from the air to make sure firefighters aren’t in harm’s way.
A ‘type 3’ incident management crew has been brought in due to the complexity of the fire.
Firefighters said they have been able to get about 20% containment on the fire so far, but with conditions changing rapidly, they aren’t making any estimates as to when to expect full containment.
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