Truck Fire Spreads, Becoming Wildfire Near Hood River

HOOD RIVER, Ore. — The Oregon Department of Transportation says a semi truck that was carrying cardboard caught on fire, which then spread and caused a wildfire about eight miles west of Hood River. The first of the reports about the fire started at about 8:30 Tuesday night in an area between milepost 56. 5 and 62 on I-84. By about 10:30 PM, the eastbound lanes opened, but westbound were closed.

Pictures from the area show the truck on fire with intense smoke and flames. So far, more land has burned in Oregon wildfires this year compared to any other in the past 32 years, at least 1.485 million acres. Shane DeForest is an Oregon manager for the Bureau of Land Management. “The month of August is always the time where we get the most number of fires, where we burn the most acres. And nationally, it’s also the same time where a lot of fires are going on all over the place for us.  So are up at this point in time for our 10 year average number of fire acres burned. We have quadrupled the number of acres burned in our bail BLM district.”