9/21/2014 Deception Fire Update

The high temperature yesterday on the Deception Creek Fire was 91 degrees at 3,500', and the relative humidity (the amount of moisture in the air) was recorded at 20%. The expected east winds did not develop yesterday and are not predicted for today. Isolated pockets of vegetation continued to burn generating various amounts of smoke throughout the day.

The weather forecast calls for warm and dry conditions until mid-next week when a fall storm system over the Pacific could bring cooler temperatures and up to 0.5" of rain.

Fire crews will continue to patrol all areas of the fire and repair adversely impacted sites due to fire suppression activities. Chippers and large material grinders will also continue to remove excess woody debris from roads and fire lines. No helicopters were utilized yesterday to drop water on the fire, due to minimal fire activity.

The 376 firefighters, 3 helicopters, 6 engines, 1 dozer, and 11 water tenders assigned to the Deception Complex are poised to respond if fire activity increases.

Smoke over the communities of Westfir and Oakridge may be noticeable today, but is expected to be light. Westerly winds are predicted to transport smoke away from the fire area later in the day after the inversion layer has lifted. For additional air quality information see the Lane Regional Air Protection Agency website at oregonsmoke.blogspot.com or lrapa.org.

Public use restrictions, area, road and trail closures can be viewed at: Willamette National Forest fs.usda.gov/willamette or Umpqua National Forest fs.usda.gov/umpqua

Today will be the last day that Oregon Interagency Incident Management Team 4 will manage the Deception Complex. Tomorrow, a smaller management team will continue meeting containment objectives under the direction of John Poet as the Incident Commander. A new fire information telephone number will be announced tomorrow.