Hundreds of firefighters tackle Oregon's Durkee Fire, largest in the U.S.

Author: Alma McCarty (KGW)

PORTLAND, Ore. (KGW) – Hundreds of firefighters are working to tackle the Durkee Fire, the largest wildfire in the U.S., over the last several days, which has now grown to over 284,000 acres.

On Thursday, firefighting resources focused on the fire’s northwest flank after heavy winds up to 75 miles per hour pushed the fire Wednesday. The fire has been mostly fueled by a mix of grass, sage brush, juniper and different conifers — easy to burn through.

“We’ve had extreme winds on this fire, which have caused extreme fire behavior on this fire,” said Ryan Sullivan, operations section chief with the Oregon State Fire Marshal team and Northwest Team 6.

Despite the fire’s growth, Sullivan said he’s more confident as of Thursday with the more favorable conditions for crews. He said with the little bit of rain that came Wednesday night, crews have been able to tackle the fire from the interior where it’s safe to do so.

“This is a very large footprint of a fire — obviously the biggest one, like they said,” said Anthony Foster, who’s on Oregon State Fire Marshals team.

On Wednesday afternoon when the fire crossed Interstate 84 near the town of Huntington, home to about 500 people, the focus became protecting people’s homes, a move that so far has worked. Evacuation notices for Huntington dropped Thursday morning from a Level 3 (GO NOW) to a Level 1 (BE READY) for around 300 homes.

Foster said his team plans to stay until the fire is under control or until it’s at a point where local fire resources are able to manage it.

“It’s early so far, July… you’ll see us moving from fire to fire, and so if you see us leaving an area, we’ve left it in a place we can say… we think they can handle it, and we’re moving on to the next one,” Foster said.

The Durkee Fire is one of 44 major wildfires burning in the Northwest, the vast majority of them are in Oregon.

On Thursday, officials said around 20% of the Durkee Fire has been contained, mostly along its southern flank, though there’s still a lot to be done on what’s become one of the largest fires in Oregon’s history.

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