PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — The Nakia Creek Fire sits at about 156 acres Wednesday morning, almost 100 acres less than previously reported due to better mapping.
The fire, which is reportedly human-caused, is still spreading while fire crews attempt to contain it — officials say the fire is only 10% contained.
According to an update from the U.S. Forest Service, the fire lines were created Tuesday held overnight, and the focus right now is on creating new fire lines to increase containment.
The fire is burning through previously harvested slopes right now, and the fire has the potential to keep growing while crews are at work.
All evacuation levels remain the same.
Fire weather meteorologists tell KOIN 6 it will be over when there’s a long sustained rain– but that’s more than a week out at least.
KOIN 6 also spoke to the Northwest Interagency Coordination Center, which says this fire season has been much less intense than years past, but it’s also lasting later than other fire years.
In the last 10 years, an average of more than a million acres burn across the Pacific Northwest. In 2022 alone, it was a third of that. There have been 67 large fires in the state which have burned more than 600,000 acres across the region.
“Typically we would expect our season to basically be over at this point but with these warm dry conditions, it continues to smolder around. We are still in the season but expecting the next big rain event should put it to rest,” said Eric Wise, predictive services meteorologist.
Wise says a dry east wind is keeping humidity low, but the winds are relatively calm and shorter days are helping as the burn period shortens.