Overnight Lightning Starts Several New Fires

Here is the latest on the two largest fires up near Diamond Lake from the NWCC. Windigo. OR-UPF-000234. ICT3. 20 miles SW of La Pine, OR. Start 7/30. Full Suppression. Cause: Unknown. 1,300 acres (+0). 0% containment. Timber. Active fire behavior. Evacuations in effect. Road, trail and area closures. IMT2, NW Team 6 (Sheldon) assumed command at 0600 today to manage Potter and Windigo incidents. Potter. OR-WIF-220170. ICT3. 8 Miles NE of Clearwater, OR. Start 7/31. Full Suppression. Cause: Lightning. 400 acres (+0). 0% containment. Timber. Moderate fire behavior. Road, trail and area closures. IMT2, NW Team 6 (Sheldon) assumed command at 0600 today to manage Potter and Windigo incidents. No new information received. Here is the latest update from National Forest Service - Umpqua National Forest "The Umpqua National Forest and surrounding areas continue to receive lightning. Approximately 50 strikes were recorded from last night’s storms. Six additional smoke reports were received this morning from lightning with one confirmed fire as of 10:30 am near Brownie Creek in the Tiller area. Douglas Forest Protective Association (DFPA) assisted with detection and response. Nine of the initial attack fires located over the weekend near Lemolo Reservoir have been fully contained, and five of these are also controlled. Additionally, Forebay One Fire is 100% lined as of yesterday at 1:00 pm. All fires are being managed under a full suppression strategy. The Windigo Fire (UPF) and the Potter Mt (WIF) have now been assigned to Northwest Incident Management Team 6. Updates will be provided All other initial attack fires are being managed by the Umpqua National Forest resources. Scattered precipitation was received overnight. Totals included - up to 0.9” at Cinnamon Butte, 0.5” at Diamond Lake, and 0.0” at Toketee Ranger Station. The Forest remains under a Red Flag Warning for lightning until 11:00 pm tonight. Temperatures have cooled slightly on the Forest to the 75-85 degree range, but should climb back up near 90 degrees by the end of week. Fire resources are expected to continue to pick up new starts and holdovers into the near future." ( Via National Forest Service - Umpqua National Forest) LIGHTNING RECON; ANDERSON CREEK FIRE (Via DFPA) Early morning thunderstorms brought in lightning strikes throughout the southern region of the Douglas Forest Protective Association's protection area. At 8:52 am, a DFPA fixed wing aircraft performed lightning reconnaissance over the area of Tiller and Drew. The recon identified one smoke column from a single old growth tree near Brownie Creek Road, in Tiller, ORE. The location of this fire was identified on USFS land, but also bordered private land that fell within DFPA’s jurisdiction. Ground crews from both DFPA and US Forest Service (USFS) responded to the incident and hiked in to assess further. Upon investigation, the ground crews identified that a single, hollowed out snag had been struck by lightning and a small ground fire had started in the area. At 10:50 am, USFS requested fallers and a 10-person crew to respond to the scene. DFPA crews remained on scene to aid in fire suppression. By 11:50 am, the fire was extinguished, the tree was knocked down and teams began mop-up. At 12:21 pm, DFPA crews cleared the scene and left the command to USFS. DFPA will remain in the area to continue lightning recon throughout today and days to follow. For more information about current Public Use Restrictions and Industrial Fire Precaution Levels, visit www.dfpa.net. (Via DFPA)