Central Oregon District
John Day Unit
415 Patterson Bridge Road
John Day, OR 97845
NEWS RELEASE—Lewis Rock
Fire
July 5, 2021— 3:30 p.m.
Contact:
Tom Fields
LewisRock.Information@gmail.com
John Day, Ore. – The Lewis
Rock Fire has grown to an estimated 400 acres, since being sparked by lightning
June 30th. Firefighters have
continued to be challenged by numerous spotfires outside containment lines,
caused by flying embers from trees torching.
Wildland fuel conditions are incredibly dry and receptive to these
sparks, causing these spotfires to rapidly spread.
Most of the fire movement
has been to the south, away from Mitchell and the surrounding community. Today, dozers were used directly against the
northern flank of the fire, with hotshot crews working in tandem to strengthen
the line. The Wheeler County Sheriff and
fire managers are confident there is no threat to the Mitchell area at this
time.
At 12:00 p.m. today the Central
Oregon District in-briefed Oregon Department of Forestry’s Incident Management
Team 3, Incident Commander Tyler McCarty.
The team will be taking command of the fire today at 6:00 p.m.
During in-briefing for the
team, Rick Shaffer, Wheeler County Commissioner said “I’ve lived in Wheeler
County for 72 years and I have never seen conditions like this. You think you’ve caught the fire and then you
hear on the radio that there are spots across the line. It’s just really dry out there.”
Safety concerns for firefighters
highlighted during in-briefing were heat related illnesses as temperatures are
forecast to return to around 100 degrees in the coming days. There have been no accidents or injuries on
the fire.
ODF Central Oregon District
Public Information: 541-263-0661
www.facebook.com/ODFCentralOregon
Twitter:
@ODF_COD
Current fire restriction information and
information for the Central Oregon District is available at www.odfcentraloregon.com.