Bootleg fire, nation's largest, grows to over 200,000 acres as evacuations expand to Lake County
A week after it started, the Bootleg fire, burning in southeast Oregon, grew to over 200,000 acres Tuesday, fire officials said, as evacuation orders expanded ahead of the rapidly spreading blaze.
Sunday saw a bit of a reprieve after the conflagration had doubled in size for each of the previous three days. Officials said the massive plumes of smoke created by the blaze had created a cooling effect that tempered the rate of spread.
Whatever benefit the smoke offered had dissipated by Monday, when another 50,000 acres of drought-stricken forest were added to the fire’s tally.
“Yesterday everything just kind of fell apart,” said Rich Saalsaa, a spokesman for the Oregon Fire Marshal. “Yesterday was a perfect storm. We had temperatures jump up to the low 90s, our relative humidity dropped and the wind picked up again.”
Read more: https://www.oregonlive.com/pacific-northwest-news/2021/07/bootleg-fire-oregons-largest-grows-to-200000-acres-as-evacuations-expand-to-lake-county.html