Crews continue to battle Crazy Creek Fire

Crews continued to fight the Crazy Creek Fire over the weekend but as of Monday the fire was 0% contained and had grown about nearly 17,000 acres.

The fire is located about 13 miles north of Paulina and 40 miles east of Prineville. According to a Monday morning report, firefighters had observed tree torching and short-range spotting, which resulted in fire growth in the south and southwest areas of the blaze. There was an overnight run of approximately three miles in the southern portion.

Dry, hot conditions continue to challenge firefighters. The fire has pushed south beyond Forest Road 42, triggering upgraded evacuation levels in the Paulina Valley area.

Crews have continued to construct fire lines to contain the southwest and southern portions. Across the fire, crews continue looking for opportunities to leverage features to be used as containment lines and focusing on protecting structures in Toggle Meadow and Little Summit Prairie areas.

Firefighters in the northwest area worked from the 744 and 755 roads to the 30 Road, conducting overnight firing operations to secure and improve containment lines. The southern and southwestern flanks where fire conditions are the hottest, driest and with the lowest humidity showed additional growth `on Sunday,

Starting Monday, crews planned to assess areas to the south and southwest of the Crazy Creek Fire for structures and other values to protect.

On Sunday, the Crazy Creek Fire’s push south beyond FS Road 42, triggered upgraded evacuation levels in the Paulina Valley area. LEVEL 3 (Go Now) evacuations in the Ochoco National Forest have been expanded to the eastern boundary of Big Summit Prairie and south of the Forest boundary. LEVEL 2 (Be Set) evacuations now extend from the forest service boundary south to Paulina.

Monday was expected to bring partly cloudy skies, temperatures in the 70s to 80 degrees, increasing humidity with a chance of thunderstorms with west-northwest winds 12-15 mph gusting to 25 and the potential for unpredictable outflow winds across the Crazy Creek Fire.