Active Fires today

[Sooner or later]

Stay safe, Webb.

[RWebb]

Thx

[jyl]

Wind shift favorable. From the west (ocean) in much of Western OR, and from the north in Portland area. Temps much cooler. Humidity rising. Still bad wind direction for some places - Estacada is at severe risk. Portland metro area is looking less threatened, though too late for some. I imagine Salem, Springfield, Eugene are relieved. Estimates of number of people displaced are all over the place but likely around 40,000 or more. Haven’t seen estimates of number of houses lost but think it’s in the few hundred to several hundred range. Air still terrible in Portland. I have a splitting headache as do many others. Despite staying indoors almost all the time.

[Bugsinrugs]

Interesting story from 1910.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Fire_of_1910

[vash]

Originally Posted by jyl

Wind shift favorable. From the west (ocean) in much of Western OR, and from the north in Portland area. Temps much cooler. Humidity rising. Still bad wind direction for some places - Estacada is at severe risk. Portland metro area is looking less threatened, though too late for some. I imagine Salem, Springfield, Eugene are relieved. Estimates of number of people displaced are all over the place but likely around 40,000 or more. Haven’t seen estimates of number of houses lost but think it’s in the few hundred to several hundred range. Air still terrible in Portland. I have a splitting headache as do many others. Despite staying indoors almost all the time.

J. When do the rains typically start up there. Oct?

[WolfeMacleod]

Excuse me, folks. May I speak with you about my lord and savior, Smokey Bear?

[jyl]

Originally Posted by vash

J. When do the rains typically start up there. Oct?

Normally significant rain starts Oct, occasional rain in Sep.

[fintstone]

Lots of arrests so far:

https://www.oregonlive.com/crime/2020/09/man-arrested-charged-with-arson-in-connection-with-southern-oregon-fire.html

[sammyg2]

Authorities arrest 4 in connection to possible arson, fires along West Coast
Two of the suspects remain unidentified, and authorities dismissed potential political affiliations
Peter Aitken

Four have been arrested on suspicion of arson in West Coast areas already under seige from major destructive and deadly blazes, according to reports.

As wildfires continue to rage across three states, police investigated separate incidents near existing wildfires. Two men in Washington state, one man in Oregon and one woman in California are facing charges, according to the Daily Wire.

The latest reports suggest that at least 20 people have died in California, eight in Oregon and one in Washington state as firefighters struggle to contain already deadly fires.

Ashland, Ore., Police Chief Tighe O'Meara announced Thursday that a criminal investigation was opened into the cause of the Almeda fire calling the circumstances around the fire 'suspicious'.

The fire sparked in Ashland Tuesday and although it mostly spared the Oregon Shakespeare Festival town, the blaze has killed two people and destroyed hundreds of homes.

“We have good reason to believe that there was a human element to it,” O’Meara said, according to Reuters. “We’re going to pursue it as a criminal investigation until we have reason to believe that it was otherwise.”

Police accused Michael Jarrod Bakkela, 41, of starting a separate fire near the railroad tracks in Phoenix, Ore., Oregon Public Broadcasting reported. In a statement, the sheriff’s office said that while the Almeda fire burned, “residents witnessed Bakkela lighting a fire behind their house on Quail Lane.”

Deputies and Oregon State Police troopers who arrived at the scene said they saw Bakkela “standing close to a very large fire threatening several homes.”

Bakkela has been charged with two counts of first degree arson, 15 counts of first degree criminal mischief and 14 counts of reckless endangering.

Anita Esquivel was arrested in Monterey County, Calif., after starting fires near Highway 101, though the number of fires was not released, according to KION.

The district attorney dismissed suggestions that Esquivel had ties to far-left groups, such as Antifa.

Two unidentified men were arrested in connection to fires in Washington: One man allegedly started a fire on State Route 167 at Meridian, while another man was detained a day later allegedly starting a fire at State Route 512, the Daily Mail reported.

https://www.foxnews.com/us/arrest-four-possible-arson-west-coast

[RWebb]

Bakkela = meth head

[upsscott]

The fires near us were caused by dry lightning.

[jyl]

Pretty eerie. Smoke has made air quality so bad that many businesses are closed. Not all, but traffic and pedestrians are both light. In the day it looks like pictures from Mars, sky brown, sun an dim orange ball. Feels a little like early days of the Covid shutdown. At night it looks like a creepy fog. I keep expecting to see Jamie Lee Curtis and hear Adrienne Barbeau.

[sammyg2]

Oregon man arrested twice in 12-hour span for starting 'multiple' fires near Portland freeway
Wildfires along the West Coast have left at least 35 dead
Travis Fedschun

A man in Oregon was arrested early Monday for setting "multiple" fires along a freeway in Portland, hours after he was released from custody for setting another brush fire along the same roadway, according to police.


The Portland Police Bureau said in a news release that officers were dispatched around 3:37 a.m. Monday to a report of "multiple fires" burning along the west side of the Interstate 205 freeway.

"Portland Fire and Rescue extinguished three of them while passing community members put out the other three," police said. "All were caught early."

Officers found Domingo Lopez Jr., 45, walking alongside the shoulder and arrested him. A lighter was seized as evidence.

Officials said no one was injured and no structures were burnt by the six blazes early Monday morning. Lopez's arrest was captured on camera by FOX12.


The incidents Monday morning came less than 12 hours after another blaze along the same stretch of interstate.

Police said officers responded to assist Portland Fire & Rescue at 4:35 p.m. Sunday along the I-205 freeway.

Firefighters were able to quickly extinguish the blaze and there were no structural damages. About an hour after the fire, officers were flagged down by a witness who pointed out the suspect in a nearby tent.

"Officers arrested the suspect, who confirmed he lit the fire with the device,'"the PPB stated.

Officers seized a Molotov cocktail, a plastic bottle with a wick, as evidence, according to police.

Lopez was arrested and booked into the Multnomah County Detention Center on charges of reckless burning and disorderly conduct in the second degree.

Lopez was later released and then started the six additional fires on Monday morning, according to police.

The PPB said Lopez was transported to a hospital on a Police Officer Hold for a mental health evaluation. He now faces seven counts of reckless burning and one count of second-degree disorderly conduct for all of the fires.

Police said after the Sunday fire that arson investigators were doing a follow-up to determine if other charges are warranted.

So far, four others have been arrested on suspicion of arson along the West Coast as the region deals with dozens of wildfires.

The death toll from the blazes in California, Oregon and Washington has grown to at least 35 people as of Monday.

Death penalty? Nah, we'll jut let him go about his biddness ........

[jyl]

Yeah, WTF.

[pwd72s]

Multnomah County D.A.?

[jyl]

I think so - Multco.

[wdfifteen]

4 - million - acres burned. It’s hard to fathom that amount of destruction.

[RWebb]