Bull Complex wildfire merges into one blaze, grows to 5,700 acres north of Detroit

Story updated at 10:45 a.m. on Thursday, Aug. 19

The Bull Complex burning north of Detroit has grown over the weekend and into this week, reaching 5,761 acres as of Thursday morning. 

The fire, burning in a remote part of the Bull of the Woods Wilderness, is about five miles from Breitenbush and 10 miles from Detroit. It was estimated at just 800 to 900 acres last week and 3,000 acres over the weekend. 

Ignited by lightning in early August, several separate fires have now merged into one larger blaze known simply as the Bull Complex. 

Firefighting and Forest Service officials will be holding a virtual community meeting to update the public at 7:30 pm on Friday. To access the meeting go directly to the Mt. Hood National Forest Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/mthoodnf/.

People with a Facebook account can ask written questions directly into the comment section of the live stream. The meeting will also be recorded. 

More:Bull Complex wildfires conjures up memories of last year's Beachie Fire

Fire crews have prioritized stopping the fire from moving south toward populated areas. 

“The southern line has and continues to be a priority for the Bull Complex,” said Keith Fields, Operation Section Chief on the Incident Management Team.

Today, fire officials say that masticators will be used to deepen the southern flank further by reducing dense fuels into mulch on either side of the road, alongside burnout operations that were executed during this week’s cool periods.

A spike camp will also be set up near Detroit in the coming days, said fire authorities. This temporary encampment will be closer to the fire than they currently have access to, both decreasing response times and enabling safer daily missions to the fire’s southern flank.

While the fire originally began creeping against the wind down Janus Butte — a large peak in the wilderness — the fire jumped Elk Lake Creek on Monday and entered the burn scar of the 2010 Bull of the Woods Fire.

The abundance of dry snags and young regrowth within the old burn fueled increased fire activity in the area, making direct suppression efforts dangerous there, officials said. 

There are 333 personnel currently on the containment effort, as well as two helicopters, eight engines and two dozers.

While growth continues to gradually increase into the Mount Hood National Forest in the east and northeast, containment lines on the west flank have held strong, as have the lines on the southern perimeter, fire officials said. 

Following Tuesday’s low cloud coverage, which impeded aerial monitoring, Wednesday’s clear skies enabled crews to make good progress on fire line construction and mop up operations on the fire’s east flank.

Crews invested much of Wednesday’s containment efforts into strengthening those southern lines along Forest Road 4696 and Forest Road 4688, while a helicopter dropped water along the eastern flank.

These efforts included burning vegetation along the roads to deepen the fuel breaks and continuing fire line creation towards the southeast, in hopes of linking the fire line with the pre-existing barrier of the Lionshead Fire’s burn scar from last September.

Fire officials said the scars left by the Lionshead Fire should be a good barrier, compared to the 11-year-old scar that intensified the blaze on Monday. 

The fire is burning in an area just northeast of the Opal Creek Wilderness that was among the few spots unburned following last year's Labor Day Fires. 

Information about Friday’s community meeting can be found here. 

How the Bull Fires ignited

The Bull Complex Fires ignited during a spate of 3,000 lightning strikes across Oregon in early August that brought over a hundred new fire starts. 

Helicopters dropped water on the Bull fires the first few days, and crews were able to get a handle on the two fires outside the wilderness. But the three in the wilderness were essentially burning on the side of a steep ridge; the Janus Fire grew to 300 acres in about a day, officials said. 

Fire crews did not send in hot shots or rappel crews to try and snuff out the fire, officials said.  

"Deploying rappelers or jumpers to a large, 300-acre fire in wilderness with poor safety escape routes would not have a high probability of success, nor provide a safe or effective operations," Mount Hood National Forest spokeswoman Heather Isben told the Statesman Journal last week. 

Well-known landmarks in the fire's path

The Bull Complex has already burned across Elk Lake Creek Trail, an area known for clear water and waterfalls in the Bull of the Woods Wilderness. 

It's also moving toward the Welcome Lakes and Lake Lenore in the wilderness, and is creeping toward the historic Bull of the Woods Fire Lookout. 

While fire crews did wrap fire-resistant material around Gold Butte Lookout, a popular rental located well south of the fire, they have not wrapped Bull of the Woods Lookout. 

"Crews were unable to find a safe landing zone," a fire spokesperson said. "With the quick-fire intensity and the forward progression of the fire, it was too dangerous to have firefighters’ hike to the area. It is being assessed every day, and it is currently still standing."

Wesley Lapointe is a summer Outdoor Reporting Intern for the Statesman Journal, as well as a freelance photographer and a journalism student at the University of Oregon. Lapointe can be reached at wlapointe@gannett.com or (503)586-8813.

Zach Urness has been an outdoors reporter, photographer and videographer in Oregon for 13 years. Urness can be reached at zurness@StatesmanJournal.com or (503) 399-6801. Find him on Twitter at @ZachsORoutdoors.