Awatchfire

Wasco County, Oregon

Orchard Road Fire

Burning 4.2 miles south of Chenoweth and 4.7 miles south-west of The Dalles, since Sunday 27 September.

Map of Oregon. The Orchard Road Fire burns 69 miles from Portland and 98 miles from Salem, and 98 miles from the state capital, Salem.
The fire sits 69 miles from Portland and 98 miles from Salem.

150

acres burned so far

17

days burning so far

—

no share of the perimeter reported held yet

The picture as of 9:09am today

The Orchard Road Fire is still listed as active, and has not been looked at lately. Nothing has given off fresh heat for 413 hours.

No fresh look at this fire for 413 hours. Everything on the map below was seen before then.

Shaded relief map of the Orchard Road 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

413hours

since anything was last seen giving off heat — about 4:05am on Monday, local time.

76% less

energy in the last 5.9 hours of the record than in the 5.9 before them — the fire was cooler when it was last seen.

3.9miles

is how close the heat has come to Chenoweth 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 The Dalles is 4.6 miles, None in the last day.

0.5miles

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

Another fire is burning inside the same view. West 8 Fire started on Saturday 22 August, 3.6 miles north-east, and has reached 0 acres. Its heat is counted against it, not against this fire, and the pale ring on the map marks where it is recorded.

No smoke has been recorded lying over this ground.

Where the heat is

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

Conditions measured 12.5 miles from the fire: 55°F, air at 61% humidity, a 5 mph wind out of the east.

How it got here

Two days of record on a day-19 fire

The record here begins at 4:20pm on 27 Sep and runs to 4:04am on 28 Sep — 12 hours, 16 readings of heat. The fire is on day 19, so the first 17 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. There is no long arc to draw yet. What follows is what has actually happened.

Animated map of the Orchard Road Fire across the whole record, with a time bar along the bottom showing energy released and the local date.
The whole record, 19 frames at 1 hour a frame. The bar along the bottom is energy released; the moving line is the clock.

Hour by hour local time

Sun 4:00pmMon 4:00am

Each bar is one hour of local time, sized by how much energy the fire gave off in it. This fire is too young for a day-against-day comparison to say anything, so the hours are shown instead.

Day by day 2 days of record

  1. Map for Sun 27 Sep: flames mark every place that gave off heat that day.

    Sun27 Sep

    First readings

    • 2 heat readings
    • Heat from 4:20pm to 4:20pm
    • Spread 0.5 miles from the recorded point at its furthest
    • Burning through the afternoon
  2. Map for Mon 28 Sep: flames mark every place that gave off heat that day.

    Mon28 Seplatest

    Cooling off

    • 14 heat readings — the most of any day
    • Energy 76% down on the day before
    • Heat from 2:24am to 4:04am
    • Spread 0.5 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. Sunday 27 September

    First reported at 5 acres

    5 ac

  2. Sunday 27 September

    10 acres on record

    10 ac

  3. Monday 28 September

    Grew to 150 acres

    150 ac

No containment figure has been reported for it yet. No crew count has been published for it yet. It has grown from 5 acres when it was first written down to 150 now. Nothing has looked at it for 413 hours, and the record still lists it as active.