Oregon wildfire burning over 95K acres could reach rare megafire status

The largest forest fire in the country this year has burned more than 95,740 acres, fire managers said on Sunday in the center of Oregon, while the ground teams made progress to partially contain a fire that could still intensify to become a so-called megafire.

The size of the CRAM fire was slightly adjusted on Saturday after “a more precise cartography” was completed, officials said. They added that the massive fire – which attracted more than 900 firefighters, destroyed a handful of houses and caused evacuations in two counties – was contained 49% after the crews had trouble keeping the flames last week.

“Yesterday was another favorable day with us with the weather, and therefore a lot of good job has been done,” said Scott Stutzman, chief of the Marshal Oregon State fire operations on Sunday in a Facebook video. “We will have these crews which continue to maintain a presence replacing and help our forest partners on the perimeter.”

Fresh temperatures and higher humidity over the weekend should continue at the beginning of this week, potentially helping fire fighting efforts, but the size of the fire has been astounding: if it grows at least 100,000 acres, it would be classified as a megafire, becoming the first in the United States in 2025, said Stanton Florea, Interagen Forest Fire Fight Operations.

Oregon saw six forest fires reaching megafire status last year, according to federal data.

The phenomenon is considered rare, but it has developed in frequency as forest fires in general become more widespread and intense.

The megafires “are more common now,” said Florea. “We have longer seasons of fire – what we call,” the year of fire “. And more intense fires that last longer.”

So far this year, there have been 40,934 forest fires, the highest total of the beginning of the year in at least a decade, according to national data from the interinable fire center.

But out of the 1.6 million forest fires that have occurred since 2000, only 254 exceeded 100,000 acres burned and only 16 were at least 500,000 acres, said a Congress Research Service Report in 2023.

“A small fraction of forest fires becomes catastrophic, and a small percentage of fires explain the vast majority of hectares burned,” said the service. “For example, approximately 1% of forest fires become conflagrations – fires that are raging and destructive – but predict the fires” will explode “in conflagrations is difficult and depends on a multitude of factors, such as weather and geography.”

The highest chances of extreme weather conditions, such as prolonged drought and strong winds, are fueled by global global warming, indicate that recent relationships. This means that forest fires can not only ignite suddenly, but also strengthen in amplitude at a furious pace.

The CRAM fire, which led to evacuations in certain parts of the counties of Jefferson and Wasco, started a week ago, exploding in the middle of extremely hot, dry and winding conditions to the west. The cause remains under study.

Florea said the Northwest Pacific is the country’s highest priority area at the moment, the country’s forest fight resources that are led there, including to help fight at least nine large fires burning in Oregon.

Such a high demand means that civil servants must prioritize how resources are used. An increase in the number of forest fires supports the system and the tired crews working on a quarter of 24, added Florea.

While 88 engines and eight helicopters continue to be deployed to prevent CRAM’s fire from spreading, Marshal Oregon State fires said on Sunday that it would begin to change its response as confinement improves.

Until least four houses and two other structures have been destroyed so far. The fire no longer threatens residences to the same degree, officials said.

Kyle Butler, whose house in the rural county of Jefferson was almost burned in the fire, said that a neighbor had fled the flames of his life, but returned to find his house seriously damaged.

“It all left,” Butler told the NBC KGW subsidiary in Portland. “His house is roughly ruined.”