8/23/16 Cherry Road Fire Update

Vale District Fire Update

Vale, Ore. – The Cherry Road Fire is now 60 percent contained. The fire, burning 19 miles west of Homedale, Idaho, is now 31,639 acres in size.

The fire spread quickly through annual grasses to the east of the Owyhee Reservoir. Much of the area had burned previously in the Owyhee Fire in 2013.

Due to the inaccessible and rough terrain where the fire is burning, air resources were used heavily on the Cherry Road Fire. On Sunday, 61 sorties were flown by Single Engine Air Tankers (SEATs) dropping more than 47,000 gallons of fire retardant. Yesterday, SEATs flew a total of 73 sorties and dropped nearly 53,000 gallons of retardant.

Air and ground resources were dispatched to the fire Sunday afternoon, and have been steadily growing. Yesterday evening, Northwest Team 8, Doug Johnson Incident commander were in-briefed and this morning assumed command of the fire under a delegation of authority issued by the Bureau of Land Management.

Sunday night and Monday morning, fire suppression staff were able to stop the spread of the fire to the east and to the south. The spread on the north side of the fire has been slowed substantially. The north side of the fire has been the primary area of concern due to consistent winds pushing the fire in that direction.

The National Weather Service is forecasting cooler temperatures today, though low humidity is expected to continue. Lighter winds are expected today, though gusts are still possible.

Neighboring BLM Districts have been responding with resources along with the Jordan Valley Rangeland Fire Protection Association (RFPA) and the Malheur County Sherriff’s Office.

The Northwest Team 8 Public Information Section will be taking over communications activities associated with the Cherry Road Fire today.

The contact for the Public Information Section is: CherryRoadFire@gmail.com – (541) 670-0812

For more information on the fire, visit the Inciweb site at: http://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/4974/.

To report suspicious smoke or a wildfire call the Vale BLM Dispatch Center at 541-473-6295.

-BLM-