Awatchfire

Benton County, Washington

Berrian Fire

Burning 6.3 miles east of Umatilla and 8.3 miles north-east of Hermiston, since Monday 7 September.

Map of Washington. The Berrian Fire burns 78 miles from Yakima and 97 miles from Ellensburg, and 191 miles from the state capital, Olympia.
The fire sits 78 miles from Yakima and 97 miles from Ellensburg.

188

acres burned so far

38

days burning so far

—

no share of the perimeter reported held yet

The picture as of 6:45pm today

The Berrian Fire is burning. The last heat was seen 4 hours ago.

Shaded relief map of the Berrian Fire. Amber flames mark every place that gave off heat in the last day; the shading is the shape of the ground.
Heat in the last day Higher ground pale, valleys dark

4hours

since anything was last seen giving off heat — about 2:25pm on Thursday, local time.

12readings

of heat in the last day. There is not yet an earlier stretch of record to compare that against.

4.5miles

is how close the heat has come to Umatilla at any point in the record. In the last day the nearest heat has been 4.5 miles from it, and the closest this fire has come to Hermiston is 5.3 miles, 5.3 in the last day. The two figures are the same because the record is barely a day long: the last day is very nearly all of it.

3.1miles

is the furthest any heat has been seen from the point on the official record — the width of the ground involved so far.

No smoke has been recorded lying over this ground.

One place is burning

2.9 miles south-west of the recorded point

12 readings of heat in the last day — all of the heat seen in that time.

Conditions measured 12.8 miles from the fire: 70°F, air at 34% humidity, a 3 mph wind out of the south-east.

How it got here

Two days of record on a day-39 fire

The record here begins at 12:38pm on 7 Sep and runs to 2:25pm on 15 Oct — 914 hours, 15 readings of heat. The fire is on day 39, so the first 37 days are missing: nothing showed up from above until the fire was large enough and the sky over it clear enough for it to be seen.

Animated map of the Berrian Fire across the whole record, with a time bar along the bottom showing energy released and the local date.
The whole record, 307 frames at 3 hours a frame. The bar along the bottom is energy released; the moving line is the clock.

Day by day 2 days of record

  1. Map for Mon 7 Sep: flames mark every place that gave off heat that day.

    Mon7 Sep

    First readings

    • 3 heat readings
    • Heat from 12:38pm to 12:57pm
    • Spread 2.6 miles from the recorded point at its furthest
    • Burning through the afternoon
  2. Map for Thu 15 Oct: flames mark every place that gave off heat that day.

    Thu15 Octlatest

    The fiercest day

    • 12 heat readings — the most of any day
    • Energy 26.9 times the day before
    • Heat from 12:47pm to 2:25pm
    • Spread 3.1 miles from the recorded point at its furthest
    • Burning through the afternoon

How the record has moved

Each step is a change on the interagency incident record — acreage, containment or crews — with the date it was reported. No satellite reading is involved.

  1. Monday 7 September

    First reported

  2. Monday 7 September

    0 acres on record

    0 ac

  3. Monday 7 September

    Grew to 250 acres

    250 ac

  4. Monday 7 September

    Revised to 188 acres

    188 ac

No containment figure has been reported for it yet. No crew count has been published for it yet. It has grown from 0 acres when it was first written down to 188 now. Heat was still showing within the last half-day, and the record still lists this fire as active.