Crews continued taking advantage of the week’s mild weather to attack the Bruler Fire 20 miles east of Sweet Home, now estimated at 156 acres as of Friday morning.
The blaze, first detected Monday afternoon, burns near the jurisdiction of Forest Roads 11 (Straight Creek and Quartzville roads) and 1133 approximately 8 miles south of Detroit Lake.
According to information provided by the U.S. Forest Service, additional resources have arrived, allowing personnel to “mop up” a spot fire in the northeast section of an established fire perimeter.
Air quality around Detroit and Sweet Home continues to be listed as “good,” the agency reported, and light winds from the west prevent smoke from this and surrounding fires to the east.
Tensions, however, from this recent conflagration remain high, as the 400,000-plus-acre Santiam Fire, one of the state’s most historic infernos, devastated the small city of Detroit last September. Some 264 homes were destroyed.
A total of 207 personnel are now active at the fire, whose cause remains under investigation.
Large closures remain in effect. These still includes large portions of U.S. Forest Service lands south of Detroit Lake, west of Highway 22 and north of Highway 20, plus the Middle Santiam Wilderness, Daly Lake, Tule Lake and the Old Cascade Crest trail system. A Bureau of Land Management closure area is also in place for areas along the Quartzville Scenic Byway and Quartzville Road, including Yellowbottom Campground, Old Miner’s Meadow Group Site and nearby dispersed camping areas. A roadblock has also been placed at the northern end of Green Peter Reservoir.
Visit InciWeb for more information about closures at inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/7663/. For other updates, please consult the Willamette National Forest’s Bruler Fire Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/brulerfire2021) or the agency’s Twitter account at @WillametteNF.