Fire near Oakridge is 90% contained but town is told to brace for possibly many weeks of smoke

By DOUG BATES/Editor/The Herald — The fire commander didn’t use the words “out of the woods,” but his Sunday briefing made it clear that Oakridge and Westfir have been spared from the dangerous wildfire that raged just east of town for most of the past three weeks.

The Kwis Fire, as the 1,485-acre blaze is known, was declared 90 percent contained Sunday, with crews now doing perimeter patrols and other forms of “mop-up.”

But fire incident commander Brian Gales, in his four-minute briefing Sunday, cautioned that smoke from the Kwis Fire and others burning in the Cascades will likely be smothering the community off and on for weeks to come.

“This is going to be a long-duration fire on the landscape,” Gales said.

“Long-duration” fires are those that are well-established in heavy fuels and rugged terrain, he explained. They will continue to burn until the area receives significant precipitation in the form of autumn rain – called “a season-ending event.” Some interior burning could even continue into the winter before it is fully extinguished, he said.

Sunday was the first day on the job for Gales, head of Northwest Incident Management Team 13, which took over from Team 3.

“We’ll be building on the investments made by Pacific Northwest Team 3 with indirect line construction, improving those lines through firing operations where appropriate and necessary, and looking for opportunities to go more directly at the fire’s edge when it is safe to do so,” Gales said.

LRAPA, the Lane Regional Air Pollution Authority, rated Oakridge quality as “good” early in the day Sunday, but as winds shifted the air quality deteriorated into “moderate” and even “unhealthy” levels.

The Kwis Fire just east of Oakridge is one of 12 Middle Fork Complex fires started by lightning during a stormy evening July 29. Only three of those fires remain active, but two of them — the Gales and Ninemile fires — have combined into one 13,597-acre fire burning north of Westfir and east of Lowell,  largely uncontained.

Although the Kwis Fire at Oakridge is well-enough contained that firefighters and other resources can now be redeployed to the Gales-Ninemile Fire, U.S. Forest Service personnel are warning the public to stay away from the Salmon Creek Falls recreation area. It is among a number of Willamette National Forest fire sites that remain closed because of extreme danger.

Authorities also cautioned that the 2021 fire season is far from over. The successful battle against the Middle Fork Complex does not mean there will be no new wildfires before the heavy autumn rains arrive.