Fire in the west

While the southeastern US is under siege by hurricanes, the west coast has its own problem -- massive fires.  One, the Eagle Creek fire, is raging just a few dozen miles east of the Portland metro area where I live.

The wide Columbia river forms the western part of the Washington-Oregon state line.  Especially on the southern (Oregon) side of the river, the terrain is massive hills covered thickly with forest, rugged and not easily accessible (Multnomah Falls, a waterfall tumbling down a 600-foot cliff just east of Portland, is worth a visit if you're in the area).  Interstate 84, the main link between Portland and points east, runs along the southern bank of the river.

The fire started Saturday, apparently as a result of teenagers playing with fireworks on a hiking trail.  Since then it has burned over 33,000 acres and jumped across the river to the Washington side.  This video (found via The Oregonian, the local paper) shows the expansion:

I live in the western part of Portland, but even here, on Tuesday, there was a fine white ash drifting down and the air was smoky -- it looked like fog, but the smoky smell was obvious.  At least over the last few days the summer heat has abated and it has been overcast -- but the cloud cover looks "dirty", probably due to smoke.  There's some chance of rain in the next few days, but not much -- this area is known for its rain, but it usually stops in late June and doesn't resume until autumn.

Here are a couple of videos of what the affected area looks like:



Interstate 84 has been closed, and there are hundreds of burned trees likely to fall across it even when the fire is over.  Firefighters have made some progress in containing it, but as the videos show, the terrain is not hospitable to conventional firefighting methods.

As with the recent hurricanes, global warming is likely a contributing factor.  Both this summer and last, our area had several days of heat that broke local records.  Millions of dried-out or dead trees helped the fire spread quickly.  Beyond Oregon, there are major forest fires raging in areas from British Columbia to southern California, exacerbated by excessive summer heat and, in some areas, drought.

It's been estimated that hurricane Harvey dumped a trillion gallons of water on Houston.  We'd gladly take overy drop of it off their hands.  Unfortunately things don't work that way.

[Image at top:  fire near the Bonneville dam on the Columbia river]