#BeachieCreekFire operations team member John Spencer just gave very thorough explanation of what’s going on today w/ fire activity, containment & control lines, life-saving efforts, goals for next few days, improving weather, etc

@KGWNews

Good news: #BeachieCreekFire and #RiversideFire not expected to merge this weekend as was initially expected, thanks to weather activity. Not out of the question but not imminent. Weather has really improved: humidity up, winds down, temps dropped

Dense fog & smoke blanketing area preventing firefighters from working around perimeter of Beachie Creek Fire. Once it moves out (hopefully by 1) they’ll get back out there.

Spencer says firefighters will start mopping up & assessing damage to structures inside fire.

Crews + heavy equipment to tie parts of existing control line together on the W & and NW sides of fire. Line construction/reinforcement south of Hwy 22 will continue.

Firefighters working w/ landowners on SE perimeter of fire to build & secure control lines.

#BeachieCreekFire & #RiversideFire are ~1 mile apart. Combo of winds, record dry forests & features in Table Rock Wilderness mean it’s still possible they burn together. But Spencer says a future merger would not cause erratic fire behavior we’ve seen this week

Tour of fire perimeter delayed until 1pm due to conditions. Will reassess then.

Southern perimeter (see black circle) most active part of #BeachieCreekFire today; wind picked up and flame lengths along perimeter shot up. Incident command working w/ state & private corporations on attacking perimeter, will likely be indirect vs direct (defense vs offense)

Spencer: southern perimeter of fire is "also in areas - what we call activity units - where there’s been logging operations in the past. So the fuel is a little bit more receptive and fuel-loading is higher so flame lengths and fire activity is greater..."

Today crews are:
- getting control lines in & protecting structures: Gates, Mill City, Mehama
- Law enforcement dealing w/ N Fork corridor where in Elk Horn Valley lost a lot of structures.
- Cutting out road system bc of dangerous trees
- Going into area to keep assessing damage

Spencer: "The perimeter work we have accomplished on [Western] edge of our fire all along yesterday made great gains. I’d say we got about 30% of our containment lines in yesterday and we’re hopeful to maybe have 50% of our containment lines on this western perimeter done today."

"Gonna take 3,4,5 more days to get it all tied in & completed but fire behavior has really moderated. Why? 2 reasons: we’re coming out into ag lands in lower valleys, coming out of mountainous, forested areas and we’re able to pick it up in these ag pockets out here in the west."