ESTACADA, Oregon — Rain fell all over the northwest Friday.
That is a very good thing if you are fighting fires.
“It makes a difference in the short term,” said Holly Krake from the incident command team on the Riverside fire near Estacada.
“But rains like that are both a blessing and a curse,” she added.
She is talking about the scorched earth left behind by the riverside fire.
I saw it myself Thursday when I got a quick tour of highway 224 with Clackamas County Sheriff Craig Roberts.
Nearly all the green in the burned areas is gone. There's a chance of landslides now.
The sheriff told me it’s the worst thing to hit Clackamas county in his lifetime.
“For a number of reasons. I think it’s because of the scope. We’re talking a massive part of our county. We’re also talking way more citizens. I remember at the town center we were looking at 10,000 [people]. I thought that was a lot at that time. That’s nothing compared with the volume of people we’re having to deal with in this situation,” said Sheriff Roberts.
And it's far from over.
Oregon Department of Transportation crews are working to clear Highway 224 east of Estacada - the fire sent huge logs down onto the roadway along with piles of rocks. The work has a long way to go and the highway remains closed.
In the forest, the rain will cool fires in some places-- but not everywhere.
“So there are duff layers where the fire is still burning two feet deep. And this rain isn’t going to saturate that,” Holly Krake said.
To the southeast-- timber crews Thursday cut and burned dangerous trees along Highway 22 which remains closed in most areas.
And farther south, we're now seeing images of the red sky -- smoke and fire closing in on the Leaburg fish hatchery along the McKenzie River.
The local utility opened the dam to keep downed trees from snagging on the gates but it also forced the release of a million salmon, steelhead and trout into the river.
And while Friday brought some relief with the rain, it also carried a new danger, the possibility of lightning which can easily start new fires.
In southwest Washington, the Big Hollow fire burns east of Cougar and Yale Lake.
The weary sounding Washington state lands commissioner, who toured the fire and talked about the lightning, summed up the feelings of many in the northwest.
“I've got resources that are very, very stretched. And stretched thin. And right now I’d love to put this fire season behind us,” said Hilary Franz.
It has already been a long year- and it’s not over yet.