News
Release: Memaloose Park Fire
Saturday
July 7, 2018
5:00
p.m.
Contact: Christie Shaw, Oregon Department of Forestry
541-263-0661
Stan Hinatsu, U.S. Forest Service
541-490-0961
[Hood River,
Ore.] Firefighters on the Memaloose Park
Fire worked today on strengthening the existing containment lines which were
built last night to check the fire spread.
The sixty-five acre fire remains at 25% containment this evening. Within the fire perimeter unburned fuels have
slowed efforts to fully contain the fire.
Gordon Foster, Incident Commander for the Oregon Department of Forestry
describes the fire as “a dirty burn with lots of potential risk due to the
adjacent homes and campground facilities.”
Firefighters will work overnight
continuing mop-up activities and looking for areas of heat and flames.
An Oregon state
legislature severity funded Type 2 helicopter has been used to drop water on the
fire today, focusing on heat and flames near the fire perimeter. Funding for this helicopter is intended to
reduce wildfire impacts to Oregon residents from fire, smoke, reduced water
quality and other damages to natural resources. Additional aerial resources are available to
support the firefighters on the ground if needed.
The fire is
threatening homes in the Rowena Dell area and Highway 30 is closed from Marsh
Cutoff Road east to the Rowena interchange.
Current evacuation and closure information can be found on the Wasco
County Sheriff’s facebook page: www.facebook.com/WascoCountySheriff/.
This evening the Highway 30 closure will be evaluated for possible re-opening. www.tripcheck.com
will be updated as soon as this decision is made. Memaloose State Park is currently closed to new
campers entering the campground. This closure is in place to ensure firefighter
and public safety during firefighting activities.
Friday
evening the fire burned through the westbound Memaloose Rest Area, managed by
Oregon Travel Experience, causing minor damage to one of the buildings and
burning the power transformer for the site. The westbound rest area will
remain closed until the electrical unit can be repaired. The eastbound
rest area is open. No other buildings were damaged by the fire.
The fire
burned lands within Memaloose State Park, Oregon Travel Experience’s Memaloose
Rest Area, and private lands protected by Oregon Department of Forestry, Mid-Columbia
Fire and Rescue protection, and some lands managed by the U.S. Forest
Service. The fire is human caused and
under investigation.
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