Oregon wildfires set record for acres burned, new fires spark evacuations 42%
By Zach Urness43%
8/2/2026, 10:18:30 AM
BS Summary: This article contains 10 faulty reasoning types, including Appeal to Authority, Recency Bias, and Pessimism Bias, with Negativity Bias as the most egregious example at 22.6% saturation with 164 hits. Analysis detected 682 faulty-reasoning hits from 725 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 40.6% and a BS Rank of 42% (14,868 of 25,268 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 58.80% of the article peer group.
Oregon set a new modern record for acres burned in wildfires on Aug. 2, and it comes with almost two months remaining in fire season.
The state’s 60 large fires have blackened 1.978 million acres in 2026, which surpasses the previous record of 1.93 recorded for the entire 2024 season, according to data from Northwest Coordination Center.
Detailed data on acres burned only extends back to 1992 and was more difficult to tabulate in the early 1900s.
This year’s fire have burned almost entirely east of the Cascade Mountains, where they’ve destroyed homes, ranches and two lookout towers, while bringing smokey skies and putting thousands on evacuation.
The infernos have been similar to the 2024 fires in that most of the burning occurred on the state’s east side, many coming in massive grassland fires, rather than forest fires.
In terms of sheer impact, Oregon’s 2020 wildfire season still remains by far the most deadly and destructive, having taken 11 lives and burned more than 4,000 homes.
This year, a total of 20 homes have been confirmed lost, although that number is likely higher and doesn’t take into account smaller structures.
This year’s fires have also been extremely expensive, having already cost $353 million.
“We thought that 2024 was going to be as busy as a July could get, and I can confidently say that 2026 has outpaced that year in terms of fires, scale of those fires, stretching of the resources, threats to communities,” said Kyle Williams, the Oregon Department of Forestry's deputy director of fire operations, during the Explore Oregon Podcast.
“As far as the impact on eastern Oregon goes, it’s probably the worst that we've had it, at least in modern times,” Williams added.
The good news is that, even with the wind event on Aug. 1, fire crews have been able to get containment on many of the largest fires and fire complexes — including the Bench, Rowe Creek Complex and Hay Creek Complex.
The rate of acres burned has slowed.
But many fire still remain active and new fires are popping up by the day.
The Grasshopper Fire grew to 30,000 acres east of Mount Hood on Aug. 2 and burned an iconic fire lookout.
A wildfire just off Interstate 5 near Grants Pass brought level 3 evacuations and burned at least one home, and the Round Butte Fire outside Madras also brought evacuations.
“With the fuel conditions and the potential that's out there right now, any human caused fire is still going to have the potential to turn into one of these giant terrible fires," Williams said.
The table-setter for the wildfires, Williams said, has been a deep drought that began with the warmest winter on record and almost no snowfall, and continued with a dry and hot spring.
Then, thunderstorms brought more than 10,000 lightning strikes across the state in two storms on July 15 and then July 22-23.
“The lightning a couple weeks ago that put down more initial starts than we had capacity to put them out when they were small, so you end up with a lot of large fires,” Williams said.
Williams said the lightning strikes in western Oregon came with more rain, giving fire crews enough time to snuff them out before they grew.
But on the east side, most of the rain dried far quicker and the sheer number of fires “overwhelmed the system.”
Once the fires started burning, the fuels were so dry that the NWCC wrote in an advisory that fires were “showing increased resistance to control, requiring more resources for longer periods and aviation support is often less effective."
Williams said the department’s normal tactics for putting out fires weren’t working, requiring them to give the fires more space in getting containment.
“The Akawa Butte Fire had 150 foot flame lengths coming out of the timer,” he said.
“You can't stand next to that and keep people safe.
It requires a lot bigger footprint.
Every single fire is exhibiting that kind of resistance and really stretching the system to its maximum.”
Zach Urness has been an outdoors reporter in Oregon for 18 years and is host of the Explore Oregon Podcast.
He can be reached at zurness@StatesmanJournal.com or 503-399-6801.
Find him on X at @ZachsORoutdoors and BlueSky at oregonoutdoors.bsky.social
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