Weather Provides Fire Crews in Oregon a Helping Hand

Higher humidity and favorable wind Sunday helped firefighters trying to corral the northern end of Oregon’s largest wildfire in more than a century.

Northeast winds helped crews set controlled fires during the night to remove fuel from the path of the 333,890-acre blaze.

“It’s kind of burning back onto itself on the slopes,” U.S. Forest Service spokesman Nigel Baker said. The fire was about 25% contained, said Carol Tocco of the Northwest Interagency Coordination Center.

Elsewhere in the Northwest, a fast-moving fire just across the Columbia River Gorge near Murdock, Wash., was under control, authorities said.

Murdock’s 400 residents were evacuated Saturday night, but residents were allowed to return Sunday morning. Four houses, three outbuildings and some vehicles burned.

While the weather helped fire crews on the northern side of the Oregon fire, conditions were less favorable on the eastern flank, where hot, dry weather was forecast into the week.