Forest Service prescribed burn escapes, becomes 120-acre wildfire near McKenzie Bridge

Update at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, May 31

A prescribed burn in the McKenzie Bridge area escaped Tuesday afternoon and turned into a 120-acre wildfire in Willamette National Forest east of Eugene.

The U.S. Forest Service acknowledged that its planned burn, which is meant to clear brush and fuels, flared up in high winds and ignited two spot fires that required a response from 34 firefighters.

By Wednesday night, the blaze was named the W-470 Fire. Its size remained unchanged as ground crews built control lines around the fire and a helicopter was ordered, but unable to fly due to high winds, an update said.

A type 3 firefighting crew will take over management of the blaze on Thursday.

The fire is located on a steep slope approximately 2 miles northeast of the McKenzie River Ranger Station and north of Highway 126, where FS Roads 2633-704 and 2633-706 split near Frissell Trail.

“Our highest priority is to suppress fire in the area adjacent to the burn unit,” Willamette National Forest supervisor Dave Warnack said earlier. “Our firefighters are safely engaging according to our contingency plan factoring in the dynamic aspects of managing fire in the timber forests that we know well, where spot fires are not unexpected.”

Prescribed burns are a common tool fire crews use to reduce fuel loads and create landscapes less susceptible to wildfire. They occasionally escape and cause problems.

In this case, the Forest Service said it was a 65-acre prescribed burn “to reduce fuels in a thinned stand.” The weather was “within prescription when gusty winds led to two spot fires adjacent to the 65-acre burn unit,” the Forest Service said.

Last October, a Forest Service "burn boss" was arrested by the Grant County Sheriff's Office after a controlled fire escaped and burned 20 acres of private land near Seneca, about 25 miles south of John Day in Eastern Oregon. That same year, controlled burns ignited fires in New Mexico that caused millions in damages.

The Forest Service announced a “pause” in May 2022 for all prescribed fire operations on national forest lands “because of the current extreme wildfire risk conditions in the field … while we conduct a 90-day review of protocols, decision support tools, and practices ahead of planned operations this fall,” Forest Service Chief Randy Moore said in a statement at the time.

Prescribed burning operations resumed later that year, in part because reducing fuel loads is seen as a critical part of slowing wildfires that spread toward communities.

“Over the past 20 years, a rising number of large and destructive wildfires have threatened lives, property, and infrastructure. Forest thinning and the safe and effective use of prescribed fire, often in conjunction, are essential tools for reducing wildfire risks and creating resilient fire adapted landscapes,” the Forest Service said previously.

More: US Forest Service 'burn boss' arrested for reckless burning in eastern Oregon

Zach Urness has been an outdoors reporter in Oregon for 15 years and is host of the Explore Oregon Podcast. To support his work, subscribe to the Statesman Journal. Urness can be reached at zurness@StatesmanJournal.com or 503-399-6801. Find him on Twitter at @ZachsORoutdoors.

This article originally appeared on Salem Statesman Journal: Prescribed burn escapes, becomes 120-acre wildfire near McKenzie Bridge