DUFUR, Ore. — Crews are working to contain a fire east of Dufur called the Wrentham Market Fire. As of Thursday, it has burned about 10,000 acres and crews have it 38% contained.
Those firefighters are dealing with a lot between the dry weather, heat and wind. Heading into the Fourth of July holiday weekend, they're hoping people aren't careless because they've already got enough on their hands.
“I think it's gonna be a lot of hard work. I think everybody’s mindset is that it's going to be a long year,” said Multnomah County Task Force 7 leader Gordon Hartung.
He and his team have been fighting the Wrentham Market Fire, which broke out Tuesday. He said the fire is different from what his team is used to.
“Because we're a structural task force, so we're used to the city and a lot of residential commercial buildings. So, coming out here is a different ball game. The land, the other big thing -- the topography, the wind, extremely windy out here,” said Hartung.
Fire officials say two buildings have burned, outbuilding and a barn located near a home. The home and a historic abandoned school house were saved.
“Everyone's prepared to put it long days, long hours,” Hartung said.
The hard work put into the Wrentham Fire is a snapshot of the work crews are putting into other fires,
“Currently in Oregon we are tracking several large fires that are on the landscape,” said Carol Connolly, public information officer for the Northwest Interagency Coordination Center (NICC).
The center is tracking three large active wildfires as of Thursday: the Wrentham Market Fire, the Rattlesnake Fire, which has burned roughly 5,000 acres and is 10% contained northeast of Warm Springs and the Rye Grass Fire, which is burning about 1,000 acres east of Paulina, Ore. in a rural part of central Oregon.
Typically, a large active wildfire is categorized as 100 acres or larger burned in timber or 300 acres or larger on grass or rangeland.
Connolly also said they're watching several small fires, some caused by lightning on Wednesday.
“We had over two dozen small fires that were started with that activity and our initial attack resources have responded and are working on those incidents,” said Connolly.
“In some places, we've never seen it this dry at this time of year. So there is potential for any spark to run, especially when we have this kind of wind,” said Ali Dean, with the Prineville District of the Bureau of Land Management.
Dean, who is helping fight the Wrentham Market Fire, said crews will be in rough shape if more fires start up.
“We're all crossing our fingers and just praying,” said Dean.
Dean’s words are a good reminder to be responsible this Fourth of July.
Connolly said right now there are no large fires burning in Washington.
But across the U.S., the National Interagency Fire Center said there are 44 large fires burning, most of them located on the western side of the country.