Three new small fires broke out over the weekend in the Mt. Hood National Forest, and firefighters are working to contain the flames.
Three new small fires broke out over the weekend in the Mt. Hood National Forest, and firefighters are working to contain the flames.
Fire officials are working to determine a cause on all three of these fires.
The Austin Fire, a roughly 30-acre fire burning on the north side of Forest Road 46, was reported on Sunday. Fire officials say there are two engines fighting the fire, and more resources are on their way.
The Mitchell Fire is also burning in the Mt. Hood National Forest about a mile north of Hideaway Lake Campground. It is burning an estimated 5 acres.
The Narrows Fire, initially reported Saturday morning, is a small 5-acre fire burning in the scar of the 2020 Riverside Fire in Clackamas County. The fire didn’t grow much overnight, thanks to cooler overnight temperatures.
A helicopter fighting this fire managed to drop one bucket on the blaze Sunday before being rerouted to fight the Austin Fire.
William Burch was fishing at Harriet Lake with his family Sunday, when he said his trip was cut short after watching the Austin Fire grow just south of them.
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"Probably around noon, 12:45, 1-ish, we started noticing, that seems like smoke!" Burch said.
"We were pretty confident we could get out, but it was one of those things where ... it's a little nerve-wracking to be that close to a fire and not really know where it is, because you don't have cell signal up there. You can't just pull up a fire map, and be like, 'ok, it's over in that drainage,'" Burch added. "So we just kind of had to guess where it was, and we were just like, 'well, it's better to just be safe than sorry and just get out.'"
Also burning in the Mt. Hood National Forest is the Grasshopper Fire, which surpassed 57,000 acres on Sunday and is considered 23% contained.
That fire, which is believed to have started on July 23, has caused some Level 3 "GO NOW" evacuations - including one for Mt. Hood Meadows.
With so many new starts in the Mt. Hood National Forest, Burch is one of many Oregonians urging their neighbors to be aware of just how dry conditions are and what natural and historical resources are at risk.
"We could all kind of see this coming with the really dry winter, with the low moisture we had, and we're still only in August," he said. "I mean, we have months of this left and it's definitely - people really need to be cautious going up there, and being careful on what they're doing up in the national forest, because our resources are stretched super thin."
"There are circumstances that we can't control," he added. "We can't control when it's gonna be dry, we can't control those types of things, but what we can control is what we do up there and make sure we aren't contributing, so that we can keep this beautiful area the way it is."
You can find more information on evacuations here.
