Rapidly-growing wildfire in Lane County prompts evacuations

The Lookout Fire is burning in the Cascade foothills of Lane County. Extreme temperatures and gusty winds on Sunday afternoon fanned the flames, according to fire crews. Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek has invoked an Emergency Conflagration Act. It clears the way for the Oregon State Fire Marshal to mobilize firefighters and equipment to assist local crews in battling the fire.

[karlabritfeld]

These fires have happened every summer since 2015. All up and down the west coast

[reubenkincaid]

Mountain D.E.W. and land for sale. Ancient Chinese secret. AHhhh SOOOoooo!

[bohahnfeld]

Haha they call them wildfires, um noooo.

[lavonnekelly]

My best friend lives in Independence and says the air quality is terrible right now....

[nitroburn]

With proper leadership and resources, fires like this could be snuffed out in no time. I haven't been paying attention to the fires lately, since Brown let so much of Oregon just burn recently. There was a grass fire in south Salem along the road...most likely attributed to an ignorant or intentionally uncaring individual flicking a cigarette out their car window. I remember doing that myself, when I was young and stupid...however, I had the common sense not to do it when there was a high probability that it would ignite anything. These fires aren't due to global warming or the usual sporadic lightning strike or catastrophic equipment failure--that simply leaves the human equation being at fault, as usual. Bambi sure didn't start them to keep warm on a hot summers day/night...animals don't have the capacity to. 🤣 Either way, if we care enough to extinguish them fast, then we will. Sure hope the leaders of this area feel greater heat under their a$$es.

[ModeinPDX]

When the Scty. of Agriculture was recently in Oregon he said/implied the government has no problem paying to have the dead wood removed from forests such there wouldn't be the super wildfires as breakout when a forest is overflowing with dead wood-tinder from climate change.

He said the problem was what to do with the wood-tinder, that problem causing a delay in the critical amount required to tame and more easily manage the fires same as the forests--or so I paraphrase my understanding of what he said.

There are great companies who will make wood flooring and other products out of it, but my start up wants to burn it here in Portland in what I want to call a new steampunk district on NW Naito Parkway, biomass energy plant unlike any other: Verdantronix.