A community meeting on the Substation Fire will be held 3 p.m. Saturday, July 21, at the Grass Valley Pavilion in Grass Valley. Meeting will be live-streamed and recorded, view at www.facebook.com/substationfire2018. Containment of the Substation Fire reached 44 percent by Friday evening. Now 80,763 acres, fire behavior was reduced to creeping and smoldering. Winds were not as strong throughout the day, although gusts of 20-25mph kept firefighters alert for potential hot spots.

The 50,000-acre Substation fire jumped the Deschutes River where it empties into the Columbia River Thursday morning, and a level 3 evacuation was called for Biggs Junction, said Wasco County Sheriff Lane Magill.

Moro — The Substation Fire, which started southeast of The Dalles on Tuesday afternoon, moved further east today driven by high winds. Firefighters saw heightened activity on the north and the south ends of the fire. More than 50,000 acres in Sherman and Wasco Counties are affected. Highway 97 from Biggs Junction to milepost 67, the junction with Highway 197, was closed Wednesday evening.

UPDATE: As of 1:36 p.m., the Substation Fire is now estimated at 36,000 acres. Wasco Electric reports that a minimum of 90 power poles have been lost and crews have been working through the night to get new poles up, work that is expected to continue through the weekend. Families in the fire zone southwest of The Dalles are reporting that the Gary Van Orman’s house at 6857 Robert’s Market Road has been destroyed by the fire.