As the Bootleg Fire, the largest of 70 active fires in the United States, continues to spread, a new fire in California is bringing back horrific memories for those who survived the deadliest fire in U.S. history.
The Dixie Fire erupted Wednesday in Butte County, California. If that county sounds familiar, it’s because that’s where a blaze killed 85 people and destroyed nearly 19,000 buildings near Paradise in 2018. According to the National Interagency Fire Center, the Dixie Fire was 4,965 acres in size and 7 percent contained as of early Friday afternoon.
The video above shows efforts to contain both fires, and we hear from a Portland Fire and Rescue battalion chief about those efforts.
The Bootleg fire was also at 7 percent containment as of early Friday afternoon. The NIFC listed the size of the fire at 227,234 acres. That puts it as the sixth largest fire in Oregon history, according to the Oregon Department of Forestry. The Bootleg fire grew massively Thursday, as strong winds pushed flames to the north and east.
“You have so much heat and so much intensity that that plume raises, raises, and it’s just billowing smoke,” the battalion chief said. “As that’s building throughout the day, the sun sets, the temperatures go down, and all of a sudden that fire can no longer support that billowing tower, that plume. So it oftentimes will collapse all at once.”
The batallion chief said the collapse can create a 50 mph wind for 10 minutes.
“So that can absolutely wreak havoc on all the crews that are out there and all the structures that, you know, aside from 50 mile an hour winds, we thought they were safe. Now we’ve got 50 mile an hour gusts and all ‘bets are off’,” the battalion chief said.
The winds are an even bigger problem in California.
“All the massive fires you see in California, they’re all wind driven,” the battalion chief said.
Extremely dry conditions and heat waves have also swept the region, making wildfires even harder to fight.
