Two dozen fires in Washington and Oregon, Trapper Creek Wilderness threatened

Resources in short supply as fires burn across the Columbia River Basin, skies turn gloomy and high winds continue in many areas

Boiling up: Big Hollow Fire smoke plume from Washington’s Wind River Highway on Wednesday at 2:30 p.m. Photo by Jurgen Hess

Jurgen Hess, September 9, 2020. At least twelve fires are currently raging across Washington. Fourteen more are scorching Oregon. Current fires have burned 919,641 acres in the two states, an area 150,000 acres bigger than the state of Rhode Island. 

North of Carson, Washington, the Big Hollow Fire has burned 6,000 acres in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest and moved south into the Trapper Creek Wilderness.

On Wednesday afternoon, Chris Harper, U.S. Forest Service incident commander, told Columbia Insight the fire is 0% contained with only 40 firefighters working the blaze.

That means the fire is doing its own thing, going where it wants to go. Harper said he’s hoping to get air support to fight the blaze, but because so many fires are burning simultaneously, aircraft are in high demand.

Help is on the way. A Type II team with many firefighters and equipment will take over managing the fire tonight.

Harper said fire conditions are extreme with strong east winds continuing to blow.

For ongoing information about all the fires burning in western states, visit the interagency Incident Information System.

UPDATE: At 9 a.m. on September 10, the Incident Information System (Inciweb) reported the Big Hollow Fire had grown to 22,000 acres and was moving west, with little spread into the Trapper Creek Wilderness.