Awatchfire

Baker County, Oregon

North Pole Fire

Burning 6.9 miles north of Sumpter and 11.3 miles east of Granite, since Saturday 22 August.

Map of Oregon. The North Pole Fire burns 18 miles from Baker City and 163 miles from Bend, and 236 miles from the state capital, Salem.
The fire sits 18 miles from Baker City and 163 miles from Bend.

310

acres burned so far — about 0.5 square miles

53

days burning so far

0%

of the perimeter held

The picture as of 9:09am today

The North Pole Fire is still listed as active, and has not been looked at lately. Nothing has given off fresh heat for 1062 hours. There is no clear movement in the last six hours: the middle of the heat has shifted less than the width of the ground a single reading covers.

No fresh look at this fire for 1062 hours. Everything on the map below was seen before then.

Shaded relief map of the North Pole 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 Where another fire is recorded

1062hours

since anything was last seen giving off heat — about 3:05am on Tuesday, local time.

96% less

energy in the last 6 hours of the record than in the 6 before them — the fire was cooler when it was last seen.

4.5miles

is how close the heat has come to Sumpter at any point in the record. In the last day the nearest heat has been None miles from it, and the closest this fire has come to Granite is 9.1 miles, None in the last day.

2.9miles

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

Four other fires are burning inside the same view. May Flower Fire started 696 minutes after this one, 2.2 miles north, and has reached 0 acres. McCulley Fire started 23 minutes before this one, 4.4 miles west, and has reached 1,202 acres with 92 people assigned. McCully Fire started 24 minutes before this one, 4.4 miles west, and has reached 13,604 acres with 84 people assigned. Summit Lake Fire started 36 minutes after this one, 2.8 miles north, and has reached 0 acres. Their heat is counted against them, not against this fire, and the pale rings on the map mark where they are recorded.

Two larger fires are burning outside this frame: Olive Butte Fire 14.4 miles south-west at 3,092 acres and Anthony Fire 10.2 miles north at 2,584 acres. None of their heat is counted here.

Smoke has been recorded lying over this ground once so far. The thickest of it was thin between 1:10pm and 4:30pm local time. The last of those windows closed 233 hours ago, so what is overhead now is not known.

Where the heat is

No cluster large enough to call a separate front. The heat is in one piece.

Conditions measured 12.2 miles from the fire: 61°F, air at 9% humidity, a 1 mph wind out of the east.

How it got here

11 days of record on a day-55 fire

The record here begins at 9:40pm on 22 Aug and runs to 3:06am on 1 Sep — 221 hours, 1,103 readings of heat. The fire is on day 55, so the first 44 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 North Pole Fire across the whole record, with a time bar along the bottom showing energy released and the local date.
The whole record, 77 frames at 3 hours a frame. The bar along the bottom is energy released; the moving line is the clock.

Day by day 11 days of record

  1. Map for Sat 22 Aug: flames mark every place that gave off heat that day.

    Sat22 Aug

    First readings

    • 1 heat readings
    • Heat from 9:40pm to 9:40pm
    • Spread 0.2 miles from the recorded point at its furthest
    • Burning through the night
  2. Map for Sun 23 Aug: flames mark every place that gave off heat that day.

    Sun23 Aug

    Flaring up

    • 99 heat readings
    • Energy 55.0 times the day before
    • Heat from 1:58am to 8:42pm
    • Spread 2.7 miles from the recorded point at its furthest
    • Burning through the pre-dawn, morning, afternoon and evening
  3. Map for Mon 24 Aug: flames mark every place that gave off heat that day.

    Mon24 Aug

    Holding

    • 184 heat readings — the most of any day
    • Energy 1.3 times the day before
    • Heat from 1:39am to 4:05pm
    • Spread 2.5 miles from the recorded point at its furthest
    • Burning through the pre-dawn, morning and afternoon
  4. Map for Tue 25 Aug: flames mark every place that gave off heat that day.

    Tue25 Aug

    Cooling off

    • 164 heat readings
    • Energy 77% down on the day before
    • Heat from 1:56am to 8:21pm
    • Spread 2.5 miles from the recorded point at its furthest
    • Burning through the pre-dawn, morning, afternoon and evening
  5. Map for Wed 26 Aug: flames mark every place that gave off heat that day.

    Wed26 Aug

    The fiercest day

    • 178 heat readings
    • Energy 4.9 times the day before
    • Heat from 2:41am to 9:00pm
    • Spread 2.6 miles from the recorded point at its furthest
    • Burning through the pre-dawn, morning, afternoon and night
  6. Map for Thu 27 Aug: flames mark every place that gave off heat that day.

    Thu27 Aug

    Cooling off

    • 106 heat readings
    • Energy 94% down on the day before
    • Heat from 2:24am to 9:38pm
    • Spread 2.3 miles from the recorded point at its furthest
    • Burning through the pre-dawn, afternoon and night
  7. Map for Fri 28 Aug: flames mark every place that gave off heat that day.

    Fri28 Aug

    Holding

    • 67 heat readings
    • Energy 14% down on the day before
    • Heat from 2:05am to 8:38pm
    • Spread 2.2 miles from the recorded point at its furthest
    • Burning through the pre-dawn, afternoon and evening
  8. Map for Sat 29 Aug: flames mark every place that gave off heat that day.

    Sat29 Aug

    Holding

    • 41 heat readings
    • Energy 36% down on the day before
    • Heat from 1:45am to 9:19pm
    • Spread 2.7 miles from the recorded point at its furthest
    • Burning through the pre-dawn, morning, afternoon and night
  9. Map for Sun 30 Aug: flames mark every place that gave off heat that day.

    Sun30 Aug

    Flaring up

    • 68 heat readings
    • Energy 11.8 times the day before
    • Heat from 2:02am to 8:19pm
    • Spread 2.4 miles from the recorded point at its furthest
    • Burning through the pre-dawn, afternoon and evening
  10. Map for Mon 31 Aug: flames mark every place that gave off heat that day.

    Mon31 Aug

    Flaring up

    • 163 heat readings
    • Energy 2.3 times the day before
    • Heat from 2:05am to 9:00pm
    • Spread 2.9 miles from the recorded point at its furthest
    • Burning through the pre-dawn, morning, afternoon and night
  11. Map for Tue 1 Sep: flames mark every place that gave off heat that day.

    Tue1 Seplatest

    Cooling off

    • 32 heat readings
    • Energy 99% down on the day before
    • Heat from 2:30am to 3:06am
    • Spread 2.8 miles from the recorded point at its furthest
    • Burning through the pre-dawn

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. Saturday 22 August

    First reported at 50 acres

    50 ac

  2. Sunday 23 August

    307 acres on record — 0% contained, 96 personnel assigned

    307 ac · 0% held · 96 crew

  3. Monday 24 August

    Grew to 310 acres — 81 personnel

    310 ac · 0% held · 81 crew

None of the perimeter is being reported as held. 81 people are assigned to it. It has grown from 50 acres when it was first written down to 310 now. Nothing has looked at it for 1062 hours, and the record still lists it as active.