Oregon Public Broadcasting

Firefighters are battling five fires across the Northwest.  They range in size from a thousand-acre blaze in Northeast Washington to a 6000-acre fire near Selma, Oregon.

Lisa Swinney is a spokeswoman with the Northwest Coordination Center. She says firefighters are getting a little help from the weather. 

The last few days have brought cool moist air to the region, and in some places, rain.

Lisa Swinney: “So firefighters are getting a pretty good handle on pretty much all of them and I suspect that if we don’t get any other fire starts that most of them will be completely contained by the end of the week.”

One notable exception, says Swinney is the View Lake Fire Complex.

It’s burning 45 miles of east of Estacada.  That fire has burned 5800 acres of isolated wilderness largely inaccessible by roads. 

Firefighters don’t expect to have that fire under control until sometime in October.