BONANZA, Ore. – Help is arriving to fight the Golden Fire burning near the Klamath County community of Bonanza, OR. Oregon Department of Forestry (ODF) Incident Management Team 2 and Oregon State Fire Marshal’s (OSFM) Blue Incident Management Team arrived at the Golden Fire today. Both teams entered into unified command of the fire at 6:00 p.m. this evening. The two teams joined forces working cohesively to manage this complex incident on grounds protected by the Oregon Department of Forestry, Bureau of Land Management, US Forest Service and Klamath Fire District No.5
The Golden Fire was initially reported around 1:00 p.m. on Saturday, July 22 and is now estimated to be approximately 2,500 acres with no containment. The cause of the fire is under investigation.
Governor Kotek declared a conflagration Saturday evening, allowing more structural resources from OSFM to support the incident. The initial response included mutual aid task forces from Lake and Klamath Counties, as well as OSFM immediate response task forces from Deschutes and Jackson Counties. Additional OSFM task forces arrived today from Clatsop, Yamhill, Lane, Marion, Douglas, Polk, and Washington counties. OSFM and ODF are committed to protecting lives, resources, property and serving the citizens of Klamath County.
The weather forecast predicts that high temperatures and low humidities will continue, which creates challenges for controlling the fire. Additional equipment and firefighters have been ordered and will continue to arrive over the coming days. The public is encouraged to avoid the area due to public and firefighter safety. There will be increased fire traffic in Bonanza.
The following evacuations remain in place:
● Level 3 (GO NOW) East of Highway 140E, south of Polar Bear Lane and north of Keno Springs Road.
● Level 3 (GO NOW) East of Bly Mountain Cutoff Road and north of Keno Springs Road.
American Red Cross and Klamath County Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) have established an evacuation shelter at: Bonanza School, 31601 Mission Street, Bonanza, OR 97623. For the latest evacuation information, call the Klamath County hotline (541) 205-9730. To sign up for Klamath County alerts, visit http://alerts.klamathcounty.org.
