Powerful winds and hundreds of lightning strikes from thunderstorms rattled the Oregon-Idaho border Wednesday afternoon, pushing wildfires that include an Oregon fire which is already the largest active blaze in the nation.
The Durkee Fire, burning near the Oregon-Idaho border about 130 miles (209 kilometers) west of Boise, Idaho, caused the closure of a stretch of Interstate 84 again Wednesday. Amid rapidly forming storms in the afternoon, the blaze crossed the interstate near the town of Huntington, home to about 500 people. It also merged with the Cow Valley Fire, another large blaze that had been burning nearby, Gov. Tina Kotek said.
"The wildfires in Eastern Oregon have scaled up quickly,” Kotek said in a news release Wednesday evening, calling it a dynamic situation. “We are facing strong erratic winds over the region that could impact all fires. Rain is not getting through. Some communities do not have power."
She said she had deployed the National Guard to the region.
The nearly 400-square-mile (1036-square-kilometer) blaze had prompted the evacuation of Huntington on Sunday, and on Wednesday city officials posted on Facebook that people remaining in town, especially those with “major health issues,” needed to leave their homes because of wildfire smoke and the lack of power.
The National Weather Service in Boise said the storms were capable of producing wind gusts up to 70 mph with blowing dust reducing visibility. A storm about 44 miles (71 kilometers) northwest of Huntington near Baker City on Wednesday afternoon had recorded a wind gust of 66 mph (106 kph), the weather service said.
Wind, lightning and heavy rain was expected that could cause flash flooding and debris flows in recently burned areas, the sheriff's office said on Facebook.
The Oregon State Fire Marshal's office also mobilized nearly 500 firefighters to help protect communities that could be threatened by wildfires on Wednesday.
More than 60 significant fires are burning in Oregon and Washington alone, and Oregon has been plagued with hundreds of lightning strikes from thunderstorms in recent days that have started new blazes in bone-dry vegetation.
The smoke from the Durkee Fire in Oregon was choking the air in Boise and beyond. An air quality warning was in effect for the entire region on Wednesday.
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