Oregon wildfire fueled by ‘critically dry weather’ consumes 400K acres

A massive Oregon wildfire, fueled by “critically dry weather” in the Northwest, continues to challenge efforts to contain it, fire officials say.

Five firefighters in Montana meanwhile were hospitalized Friday after lightning ignited wildfires in that state, according to reports.

The Bootleg Fire in Oregon, the nation’s largest wildfire, has consumed more than 400,000 acres, or 625 square miles – more than twice the landmass of New York City – including 70 homes. About 2,000 homes have been ordered evacuated and another 5,000 are threatened.

The fire is about 42 percent contained, according to the latest report

Saturday from the Oregon Department of Forestry.

“This fire is resistant to stopping at dozer lines. With the critically dry weather and fuels we are experiencing, firefighters are having to re-evaluate their options,” fire behavior analyst Jim Hanson said on Twitter.

The upper eastern edge of the fire continued to move toward Summer Lake, jumping fire lines Thursday and prompting an evacuation order for some portions of Lake County to be raised to “Go now!,” fire officials said.

“The fire continues to throw challenges at us, and we are going to continue to stay vigilant, work hard, and adapt,” said Joe Hessel, incident commander for the Oregon Department of Forestry Incident Management Team, in a statement.

With Post wires