Washington, Oregon Enter Top Level of Wildfire Preparedness

Oregon and Washington moved into the highest level of wildfire preparedness yesterday. Just three days after being increased to a ‘Level 4’, they’ve further increased to a ‘Level 5’ or ‘P5’ meaning places in those states could experience ‘complex wildland fire incidents, which have the potential to exhaust national wildland firefighting resources’. This comes as the largest wildfire in the United States continues to scorch hundreds of thousands of acres in the area. The most threatening fire in the region is the Bootleg Fire in southwestern Oregon’s Fremont-Winema National Forest though there are dozens of others burning which could be attributed to the west’s severe drought and heat waves. The Bootleg Fire has charred more than 200,000 acres since it began on July 6th. Overall 67 large fires have scorched more than 900,000 acres across 12 states.