On Wednesday the fire continued to expand east from Klamath into Lake County. 2,000 residents were under some form of evacuation notice according to emergency managers and several thousand structures were considered threatened by the fire.
After a week of uncontrolled growth, firefighters had reached 5% containment.
Sixty-four members of the Oregon National Guard have arrived in Klamath County to help law enforcement with evacuations and road closures, and to keep people out of burned areas.
鈥淲e are usually the last in and the first out,鈥� says Major Stephen Bomar, director of public affairs for the Oregon Military Department. 鈥淲hen all other state and commercial resources are limited, that鈥檚 when the Oregon National Guard is usually requested.鈥�
Bomar says the Guard has been called out earlier than past years to assist with this year鈥檚 wildfires.
Other wildfire resources are stretched, from personnel with the state Fire Marshal鈥檚 office to the Department of Forestry to the Forest Service.
鈥淲e simply don鈥檛 have the resources for another start,鈥� says Marcus Kauffman with the Oregon Department of Forestry, one of the groups managing the fire. 鈥淲e are relying on the public to be responsible with fire and not create another spark and not create another fire.鈥�
Kauffman says the fire鈥檚 behavior has been alternating between growing and stabilizing this week. That鈥檚 because of smoke inversions that slow its growth. Once the smoke blows out, the fire kicks up again.
