Oregon Interagency Incident Management Team #1Ross Williams, Incident Commander
Shaniko Butte Daily UpdateJuly 23, 2014, 8 a.m.
The Shaniko Butte Fire received a quarter-inch of rain on Tuesday afternoon from a thunderstorm that also produced a powerful display of lightning and thunder. 900 strikes were detected on and near the Warm Springs Reservation. Firefighters will be on the lookout today and throughout the week for possible “sleeper” fires from lightning strikes that begin to show up when the fuels start drying out.
Today’s weather forecast continues yesterday’s Red Flag Warning for intense thunderstorms.
All notifications regarding possible evacuations with respect to the Shaniko Butte Fire have been lifted, and all road closures have been removed.
In the face of changing weather conditions, the Oregon Interagency Incident Management Team #1 has altered their strategy for boxing in the fire. Rather than burning out along the steep two-mile dozer line from the top of the Mutton Mountains, they will instead establish a fireline near the Mutton Mountain ridgeline and tie it into the fire scar left by last year’s Sunnyside Fire. The Team now intends to use that burned area as a fire break.
The medium-lift helicopter assigned to the Shaniko Butte Fire has been reassigned to the Logging Unit Fires.
The reported acreage of the fire was reduced by nearly 2000 acres when the smoke lifted and it was realized that the unburned area in the southeast portion of the fire is larger than the original estimate.
Fire at a Glance
Size: 40,575 acres
Containment: 75%
Location: 15 miles north of the town of Warm Springs, Oregon
Cause: Started by lightning on Sunday, July 13, 2014
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