Awatchfire

Lake County, Oregon

Sycan Fire

Burning 19.6 miles south of Silver Lake and 29.0 miles north of Beatty, since Friday 11 September.

Map of Oregon. The Sycan Fire burns 84 miles from Bend and 94 miles from Medford, and 171 miles from the state capital, Salem.
The fire sits 84 miles from Bend and 94 miles from Medford.

2,185

acres burned so far — about 3 square miles

34

days burning so far

100%

of the perimeter held

The picture as of 7:50pm today

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

Shaded relief map of the Sycan 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

4hours

since anything was last seen giving off heat — about 4:15pm on Thursday, local time.

31readings

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

17.7miles

is how close the heat has come to Silver Lake at any point in the record. In the last day the nearest heat has been 17.7 miles from it, and the closest this fire has come to Beatty is 28.4 miles, 30.3 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.

2.3miles

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. 350 Fire started 0 minutes after this one, 0.4 miles north, 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.

One place is burning

1.7 miles north of the recorded point

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

Conditions measured 16.6 miles from the fire: 49°F, air at 32% humidity, a 5 mph wind out of the east.

How it got here

Five days of record on a day-35 fire

The record here begins at 2:06pm on 11 Sep and runs to 4:14pm on 15 Oct — 818 hours, 87 readings of heat. The fire is on day 35, so the first 30 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 Sycan Fire across the whole record, with a time bar along the bottom showing energy released and the local date.
The whole record, 275 frames at 3 hours a frame. The bar along the bottom is energy released; the moving line is the clock.

Day by day 5 days of record

  1. Map for Fri 11 Sep: flames mark every place that gave off heat that day.

    Fri11 Sep

    First readings

    • 37 heat readings — the most of any day
    • Heat from 2:06pm to 4:01pm
    • Spread 2.3 miles from the recorded point at its furthest
    • Burning through the afternoon
  2. Map for Sat 12 Sep: flames mark every place that gave off heat that day.

    Sat12 Sep

    Cooling off

    • 12 heat readings
    • Energy 99% down on the day before
    • Heat from 2:24am to 1:49pm
    • Spread 2.3 miles from the recorded point at its furthest
    • Burning through the pre-dawn and afternoon
  3. Map for Sat 3 Oct: flames mark every place that gave off heat that day.

    Sat3 Oct

    Flaring up

    • 5 heat readings
    • Energy 4.7 times the day before
    • Heat from 2:31pm to 2:50pm
    • Spread 1.9 miles from the recorded point at its furthest
    • Burning through the afternoon
  4. Map for Fri 9 Oct: flames mark every place that gave off heat that day.

    Fri9 Oct

    Cooling off

    • 2 heat readings
    • Energy 94% down on the day before
    • Heat from 1:42pm to 1:42pm
    • Spread 1.7 miles from the recorded point at its furthest
    • Burning through the afternoon
  5. Map for Thu 15 Oct: flames mark every place that gave off heat that day.

    Thu15 Octlatest

    The fiercest day

    • 31 heat readings
    • Energy 515.4 times the day before
    • Heat from 12:47pm to 4:14pm
    • Spread 2.1 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. Friday 11 September

    First reported

  2. Friday 11 September

    0 acres on record

    0 ac

  3. Friday 11 September

    Grew to 100 acres

    100 ac

  4. Friday 11 September

    Grew to 400 acres

    400 ac

  5. Friday 11 September

    Containment 0% — 39 personnel

    400 ac · 0% held · 39 crew

  6. Saturday 12 September

    Grew to 2,500 acres

    2,500 ac · 0% held · 39 crew

  7. Sunday 13 September

    Revised to 2,185 acres — 99 personnel

    2,185 ac · 0% held · 99 crew

  8. Sunday 13 September

    Containment 70%

    2,185 ac · 70% held · 99 crew

  9. Monday 14 September

    Containment 90% — 60 personnel

    2,185 ac · 90% held · 60 crew

  10. Tuesday 15 September

    Containment 100%

    2,185 ac · 100% held · 60 crew

100% of the perimeter is being reported as held. 60 people are assigned to it. It has grown from 0 acres when it was first written down to 2,185 now. Heat was still showing within the last half-day, and the record still lists this fire as active.