Cedar Creek Fire threats to Oakridge area diminished but not gone
Concerns about the Oakridge area near the Cedar Creek Fire were at a lower pitch Monday than over the weekend thanks to cooperative weather and a change in wind direction, but the fire remains active and its behavior could shift.
Lane County lowered evacuation levels around Oakridge-Westfir Monday morning, dropping parts of the area in level 3 to level 2. While residents of those areas could go home, some especially vulnerable people were encouraged to wait.
"We're watching and waiting, just like the residents of Oakridge," said Lane County spokeswoman Devon Ashbridge. "We're certainly grateful that a change in weather will allow the fire teams to do their work more safely and hopefully make a difference there. But we all know we're in this until the rains really come."
Fire managers were set to conduct a virtual meeting on the status of the Cedar Creek Monday at 7 p.m. on Facebook. The meeting will provide an overview of the fire's behavior and the weather, as well as operational and evacuation updates.
Fire update
The Cedar Creek Fire had reached 86,734 acres by 7:30 a.m. Monday and was 0% contained following a fire line breech.
The fire was within 3.5 miles west of Oakridge but was burning in a northward direction, said Northwest Incident Management Team 6 Operations Planning Section Chief Trainee Corey Robinson in a Monday morning update.
More than 1,200 people are currently part of the firefighting operation. On Monday, that number included 75 engines, 22 fire crews, 68 pieces of heavy equipment and eight helicopters, according to the management team's daily update.
Cooler weather helped firefighters' progress on the west side of the fire, according to the update. Structural taskforces accessed and prepped homes along the western side of the fire and aided burn operations as winds became favorable.
On the western flank, crews continued to mop up the burnout near Eagle Butte, northeast of Oakridge.
North of the Waldo Lake Wilderness, on Forest Road 19, crews worked to prepare the Box Canyon area.
Southwest of Waldo Lake, firefighters held Forest Road 5883 north of Highway 58 and the Rogue River hotshot crew improved handline to tie into Forest Road 5897. A backing fire is slowing advancement on the southwestern edge.
Firefighters planned to continue to hold and improve all lines.
On Monday, back burns along Highway 58 and structural evaluations near Odell Lake were expected to continue.
Winds were light, steady and blowing northwest Monday morning, according to the update. Dry conditions improved with more humidity overnight and scattered light rainfall. Monday temperatures were expected to be in the upper 60s.
Some torching and spotting fire behavior is expected this week, but most fire activity will be creeping and smoldering.
Evacuations
Westfir and areas of Oakridge reduced to level 2 evacuation on Sunday were still at level 2 Monday.
There were further reductions of evacuation levels in the Oakridge area Monday morning.
The High Prairie area, including High Prairie Road, Brock Road, Bar BL Ranch Road, Nubian Way, Mountain View Road and Huckleberry Lane; Westfir-Oakridge Road from Westfir city limits to Roberts Road; McFarland Road; and Oakridge north of Laurel Butte Road were reduced from level 3 to level 2 Monday, according to the Lane County Sheriff's Office.
Many forest and road closures are still in effect.
Welcome reprieve: Restrictions loosen as weekend's extreme weather eases
It is possible areas where evacuation levels were lowered may later become threatened and levels will be raised again.
"We are stressing conditions may change," Ashbridge said. "We're encouraging folks who have mobility limitations or who don't have access to transportation that's reliable or those that have a lot of animals that are hard to move quickly that they consider not returning home at this time at this point."
The greater Oakridge area was put under a level 3 evacuation order Friday night. The county had collected intake forms from evacuees representing 654 households by Sunday and Red Cross was sheltering 90 people, Ashbridge said.
People who remain in shelters will continue to receive services provided by the Red Cross.
Lane County Animal Services will continue to operate the large animal evacuation shelter at the Lane Events Center to provide a safe place to house animals from level 2 and level 3 areas. The county was sheltering 141 livestock animals Sunday and the Greenhill Humane Society was helping care for 94 domestic animals Monday, down from 120 Sunday.
Air quality
A northwest airflow has helped to push out smoke and improve air quality in Lane County, and while westward winds are not expected again, Lane Regional Air Protection Agency spokesman Travis Knudsen said fire behavior is a variable.
"I don't expect we'll see a repeat of what we saw on Friday and Saturday; however, the one unknown variable in the whole situation is the Cedar Creek Fire and what it's doing, how big it is, how intensely it's burning, how much smoke it's producing, and any other potential fires that may develop around it from the expansion it's seen," Knudsen said.
The Eugene-Springfield area can expect some lingering haze over the coming week.
"Air quality will be far from pristine," Knudsen said. "For the Eugene-Springfield and the majority of Lane County, air quality should be in that good-to-low-moderate range throughout the week. Closer to the Cedar Creek Fire, like up in Oakridge, we're expecting to see air quality in that very unhealthy to even hazardous air quality category at times."
At noon Monday, air quality monitors registered "moderate" or "acceptable" air quality in both Eugene-Springfield and Oakridge and "good" in Cottage Grove. Air quality to the fire's northeast in places such as Bend was "very unhealthy."
Contact reporter Adam Duvernay at aduvernay@registerguard.com. Follow on Twitter @DuvernayOR.
This article originally appeared on Register-Guard: Cedar Creek Fire evacuation threats in Oregon's Oakridge area lowered
