Red flag warning issued as crews battle 20-acre Piper Lake Fire

This post was updated to include new information from the U.S. Forest Service, the National Weather Service and Eugene Springfield Fire.

The eastern edge of Lane County will fall under a red flag warning Wednesday, July 30, as crews continue to fight a wildfire that began Monday in the Three Sisters Wilderness.

Officials estimated the Piper Lake Fire had burned about 20 acres as of Monday evening, about 3 miles northeast of Skookum Creek Campground, north of Waldo Lake, according to a U.S. Forest Service Facebook post.

As of a Tuesday afternoon update, the forest service still estimated the fire at 20 acres. The update states that lightning caused the fire, which is located on steep and remote land around 2 miles from the closest portion of the Pacific Crest Trail.

More than 75 personnel are assigned to the scene, including smokejumpers, rappellers and air tankers fighting the fire from the sky and a hot shot crew, a local hand crew and a wildfire fire module are attacking the blaze from the ground, according to the update.

Meanwhile, the National Weather Service issued a red flag warning Tuesday afternoon for eastern Lane and Linn counties, as well as much of Douglas County, due to a 15% to 35% chance of thunderstorms in the area between Wednesday and Thursday morning that could ignite new blazes. The warning runs from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Wednesday.

The red flag warning marked an escalation from the fire weather watch that the weather service had issued for the area earlier on Tuesday, set to take effect on 11 a.m. Wednesday through 11 a.m. Thursday. The fire weather watch will now run from 11 p.m. Wednesday to 11 a.m. Thursday.

The forecasted thunderstorms could bring brief, highly localized with wind gusts up to 35 mph, according to the weather service.

“Frequent lightning and critically dry fuels may result in numerous fire starts,” the weather service alert states. “Thunderstorm outflow winds may result in erratic fire spread.”

Weather service meteorologist Adam Batz said these fuels include dead and live tree branches, logs and shrubs that could easily ignite. 

A fire weather watch indicates that critical fire conditions are forecast but not yet occurring. If forecasters gain more confidence in the intensity or spread of lightning, they may upgrade the watch to a red flag warning — which means that critical fire weather conditions are occurring now or will shortly, Batz said.

Much of central Oregon was under a red flag warning Tuesday. Smaller fires east of the Piper Lake Fire have been reported in the Deschutes National Forest over the past 24 hours. Rappellers on Monday provided “quick response” in staffing two other fires in the area estimated to be 0.10 of an acre each, according to the forest service’s Tuesday update.

The forest service said Tuesday that officials are bringing in an incident management team to provide “logistical support” for firefighters and more help with additional lightning forecast though the week.

Fires in Springfield

In Springfield, firefighters responded Tuesday to two different half-acre brush fires — one reportedly caused by fireworks — Eugene Springfield Fire said in a news release.

Just after 2 p.m., firefighters called to the area of Glenwood Drive and Henderson Avenue south of Interstate 5 found a burning bush fire that led to the closure of Glenwood Drive for about an hour, fire officials said. The fire’s cause is under investigation.

About 10 minutes after the first fire call, firefighters responding to Industrial Avenue and North 42nd Street discovered a fast-moving fire. Workers with Lane Forest Products, a nearby landscaping supply store, brought a water truck and heavy equipment to help battle the blaze. The cause of the fire remains under investigation but reportedly involved fireworks, according to Eugene Springfield Fire.

Lookout Eugene-Springfield reporter Jaime Adame contributed to this story.