The Bootleg Fire, named after the nearby Bootleg Spring, was a large

wildfire A wildfire, forest fire, bushfire, wildland fire or rural fire is an unplanned, uncontrolled and unpredictable fire in an area of combustible vegetation. Depending on the type of vegetation present, a wildfire may be more specifically identi ...

that started near Beatty,

Oregon Oregon () is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of its eastern boundary with Idah ...

, on July 6, 2021. Before being fully contained on 15 August 2021, it had burned . It is the third-largest fire in the history of Oregon since 1900. At the fire's fastest growth in mid July, it grew at about per hour, and it became the second largest wildfire in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

of the 2021 wildfire season.

Events

July

The Bootleg Fire was first reported on July 6, 2021, at around 1:42 pm PDT near Beatty,

. The Bootleg Fire merged with the smaller Log Fire to the east on July 19, 2021. As the Bootleg Fire burned east, it approached

Mitchell Monument Mitchell Recreation Area is a small picnic area located in the Fremont-Winema National Forests, Lake County, Oregon, near the unincorporated community of Bly. In it stands the Mitchell Monument, erected in 1950, which marks the only location in t ...

, a memorial to the only civilians killed in the 48 U.S. states during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. To protect the historic site, fire crews trimmed low-hanging tree branches and built a fire line around the monument site. They also wrapped the tree scarred by the Japanese balloon bomb explosion and the stone monument in a fire-resistant material similar to the material used for firefighters' emergency shelters. As a result, when the fire passed through the adjacent forest, the monument was undamaged.

Cause

Lightning was the cause of the fire.

Containment

The fire was 100% contained on August 15, 2021. At one point, over 2,200 personnel were fighting the fire.

Impact

Closures and evacuations

Several hundred square miles of southern Oregon, in

Klamath Klamath may refer to: Ethnic groups * Klamath people, a Native American people of California and Oregon **Klamath Tribes, a federally recognized group of tribes in Oregon * Klamath language, spoken by the Klamath people Places in the United States ...

and

Lake A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much lar ...

counties, were under evacuation orders of various degrees of severity.

Damage

A total of 408 buildings were destroyed by the fire, including 161 houses and 247 outbuildings. The fire also destroyed 342 vehicles. The historic Merritt Creek trestle along the OC&E Woods Line State Trail was also destroyed.

Weather

The fire contributed to haze across the United States and vivid red sunrises and sunsets as far away as Boston and New York City. Heat and smoke from the Bootleg Fire generated

pyrocumulus A flammagenitus cloud, also known as a flammagenitus, pyrocumulus cloud, or fire cloud, is a dense cumuliform cloud associated with fire or volcanic eruptions. A flammagenitus is similar dynamically in some ways to a firestorm, and the two phen ...

and

pyrocumulonimbus The cumulonimbus flammagenitus cloud (CbFg), also known as the pyrocumulonimbus cloud, is a type of cumulonimbus cloud that forms above a source of heat, such as a wildfire or volcanic eruption, and may sometimes even extinguish the fire that ...

clouds, some reaching as high as and bringing lightning strikes and precipitation. There were reports of small

fire whirls A fire whirl or fire devil (sometimes referred to as a fire tornado) is a whirlwind induced by a fire and often (at least partially) composed of flame or ash. These start with a whirl of wind, often made visible by smoke, and may occur when int ...

, and officials believed that at least one actual fire tornado formed in the southeastern portion of the fire on July 18.

References

{{Oregon wildfires 2021 meteorology 2021 in Oregon 2021 Oregon wildfires July 2021 events in the United States Wildfires in Oregon