Ian Patrick, FISM News

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Progress was made over the weekend on several of the wildfires that have recently been plaguing the West.

The Bootleg fire, which is the largest fire in Oregon history spreading to over 413,000 acres, is 84% contained as of Monday morning. Rain showers over the weekend helped in controlling the blaze and made conditions easier for teams to combat and control the fire. However, reports of wind gusts and warmer temperatures threaten the progress made in containing the blaze.

Karen Scholl, Operations Section Chief, said the upcoming weather is not of much concern to her or their team. In fact she said, “We want this test to happen to see how our line holds, while we have crews and contingencies in place. We believe we’re in a good position to be tested.”

Level 3 evacuations remain in place for Lake County and areas surrounding the fire such as Yamsay Mountain, Thompson Reservoir, and the Sycan Marsh to the top of Winter Rim.

Meanwhile, several evacuation orders were lifted in the Dixie fire that had covered over 248,000 acres in California. As of this writing, containment is at 33%.

Crews on the western end of the fire are cleaning up and maintaining containment. The eastern end of the fire recently spread a little as winds and warmer temperatures picked up, but crews were able to manage spot fires and keep containment active.

Although evacuation orders still exist in 18 different California zones, 5 previous evacuations were downgraded to warnings and 2 previous warnings were removed altogether.

Thunderstorms are expected throughout many of the western states which may help in the fight to put out the fires, but the rain could also bring mudslides due to the lack of vegetation.