KWSO News for Tue., Aug. 18, 2020

Warm Springs Fire Management says there were 5 fires reported to Warm Springs Fire Dispatch on the Reservation over the last two days. 4 fires were reported Sunday evening and another on Monday. Two of those fires have been contained while three remain active. Monday evening’s fire update had the Lion’s head fire at 15 – 20 acres in size and uncontained. The largest of the fires, the North Butte or P 515 fire was estimated at 300 acres with zero containment. Both of those fires are located on the South – Eastern quadrant of the reservation. Terrain includes steep slopes, brush and timber. The most recent reported fire yesterday is at Quartz Butte at approximately 25 acres. Warm Springs Crews consisting of 80-100 firefighters, are responding to them and accessing other potential areas of concern.  There is aerial support as well with 2 tankers and a smoke jumper unit. Seven additional outside crews were called in with more expected to arrive today.

Elsewhere in central Oregon, firefighters picked up 11 new fires yesterday from the lightning storms that have blanketed the region. The largest of those is currently the Green Ridge Fire, which is 26 acres and 5% contained. The Green Ridge Fire is burning in heavy timber two miles northeast of Camp Sherman. Incident #714 approximately one mile southeast of Haystack Reservoir on the Crooked River National Grassland was stopped at 14 acres.

Authorities say a wildfire burning in the scenic Columbia River Gorge that has destroyed dozens of structures is 65% contained. The fire has burned nearly 1,000 acres. The Oregon Department of Forestry says 36 structures have been destroyed and about 660 remained threatened. The Oregon State Fire Marshal’s office said later Monday that crews were moving to the ‘mop-up’ phase.

The Warm Springs Covid-19 Response team is now reporting their data at 10am weekday mornings.  The data captures all information recorded up through the end of the prior weekday. The Monday, August 17, 2020 report included all information available through August 14, 2020. There were 7 additional case of Covid-19 reported on Friday bringing the total number of positive cases since testing began to 272. There are 43 active cases and 46 of close contacts being monitored by Public Health. 23 people have been hospitalized and 17 discharged from the hospital. There have been 5 deaths due to Covid-19 in Warm Springs.

The Boil Water Notice for the Warm Springs agency area was lifted on Monday. Residents no longer need to boil water, normal consumption of potable water can resume.

Warm Springs Head Start is now accepting applications for children ages three to five for the upcoming school year. Application information is available on Warm Springs Early Childhood Education’s new website: https://sites.google.com/wstribes.org/wsecehs/home

Oregon Health Authority released its Weekly Testing Report Monday, which showed that as of August 15, Oregon’s cumulative positive testing rate is 4.5 percent of tests performed. This is considerably lower than the national average of 9 percent. Of the 25,678 tests performed and reported the week of Aug. 9–15, 5.4 percent were positive. The total for that week is likely to rise as test results continue to be reported to OHA.