The Oregon National Guard deployed Wednesday morning to help in the battle against the large Bootleg Fire, which was 5% contained.
The states climbed to Preparedness Level 5, or PL5, meaning places could experience “complex wildland fire incidents, which have the potential to exhaust national wildland firefighting resources,” according to guidance from the National Interagency Fire Center.
The Northwest Interagency Coordination Center announced the hike in alert status just three days after increasing it to PL4.
The most threatening wildfire in the region is the Bootleg Fire in southwestern Oregon’s Fremont-Winema National Forest. Of dozens of wildfires burning amid the West’s severe drought and heat waves — induced by the climate crisis, scientists say — the Bootleg Fire is now the largest, Daniel Omdal, spokesperson on Northwest Incident Management Team 10, told CNN.
It has charred more than 212,000 acres since starting July 6, according to the federal InciWeb wildfire tracking site. And it is more than twice the size of the next largest fire, the Johnson Fire in New Mexico, Omdal said.
The Bootleg Fire “remains very active with significant acreage increases due to hot, dry, and breezy conditions. Poor humidity recovery at night is contributing to active fire spread through the night time period. Robust spread rates are being generated by drought-affected fuels,” according to InciWeb.
