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Northwest Crews Continue To Battle Many Large Fires

A view of the Bridge 99 Complex fire along Green Ridge near the Lookout and east of Camp Sherman and the Metolius River.
Steve Ziel
/
InciWeb
A view of the Bridge 99 Complex fire along Green Ridge near the Lookout and east of Camp Sherman and the Metolius River.

The next few days will be critical for crews battling more than a dozen wildfires in the Northwest. Forecasters have issued a Red Flag Warning for a large swath of eastern Oregon and Washington.

A view of the Bridge 99 Complex fire along Green Ridge near the Lookout and east of Camp Sherman and the Metolius River.
Credit Steve Ziel / InciWeb
/
InciWeb
A view of the Bridge 99 Complex fire along Green Ridge near the Lookout and east of Camp Sherman and the Metolius River.

A Red Flag Warning indicates a combination of high winds, low humidity and dry conditions. That means existing blazes are expected to spread.

Several highways have been closed and homes evacuated near the central Washington city of Leavenworth. In central Oregon, a section of the Deschutes River that's popular with rafters has been closed due to a fire in that area. National Guard crews have been helping battle the flames in Washington and are expected to be called upon in Oregon.

Rod Nichols with the Oregon Department of Forestry said National Guard helicopters have many uses.

"Such as actual direct fire fighting with water buckets and also medevac type situations, if they need to take a fire-fighter that's been injured out of a hard-to-reach place," he said.

There is some good news on the horizon. A cooling trend is expected in the region this weekend.

Copyright 2014 Northwest News Network

Chris Lehman graduated from Temple University with a journalism degree in 1997. He landed his first job less than a month later, producing arts stories for Red River Public Radio in Shreveport, Louisiana. Three years later he headed north to DeKalb, Illinois, where he worked as a reporter and announcer for NPR–affiliate WNIJ–FM. In 2006 he headed west to become the Salem Correspondent for the Northwest News Network.