Oregon Public Broadcasting

Firefighters battled a nearly thousand-acre grass fire east of the Dalles yesterday.

The fire started when a pickup truck towing a travel trailer broke down and ignited off of Highway 84. The vehicle fire burned tall grass between the highway and river, but high winds pushed the blaze across all four lanes of the highway.

The fire scorched about one-and-a-half square miles of private rangeland and standing wheat.

Jay Wood is Division Chief for Mid Columbia Fire and Rescue. He was the incident commander on the scene. 

Jay Wood: "It kind of surprised me a little bit. I knew it was starting to dry up out there. We've had such a wet spring that I was actually surprised that it went as fast and as big as it went."

More than 50 firefighters from 9 agencies were involved in the effort.  It took more than 6 hours to contain the blaze.