UMATILLA — Power lines knocked loose by high winds were the cause of the Monday, Sept. 7, fire that caused evacuations on the south side of Umatilla, according to Umatilla Rural Fire Protection District.

A news release from the district stated the power lines went down in the “general area of Scaplehorn Road,” which connects to the north side of Highway 730 across from the highway’s intersection with Powerline Road to the south. The release stated that the first fire crew on scene, at about 5 p.m., found the Encore Wellness clinic near the road was “experiencing impending flames.”

Steven Potts, the chief of the Umatilla Rural Fire Protection District, said strong winds pushed the fire west, eventually leading the blaze to jump Interstate 82 and threaten homes in the South Hill and Powerline Road areas. Potts said several neighborhoods were evacuated, although he knew of no injuries and the only structure that was lost was a vacant house that had long been abandoned.

By 6 p.m., high winds and blowing smoke closed both lanes of Interstate 82 between Interstate 84 and Umatilla, along with sections of Highway 395 and Highway 730. According to the National Weather Service in Pendleton, 6 p.m. is also when wind gusts peaked in the area at about 51 mph.

Potts said fire crews began containing the fire around 8:30 p.m. and residents were soon allowed to return to their homes, although crews continued to work on the fire throughout the night and battled some flareups the next day. Potts estimated the fire burned about 200 acres.

According to Potts, the gusty conditions across the region contributed to the fire’s initial burst of growth. At one point, Potts said, he was driving near the fire on Power City Road when he noticed the fire was doing something he hadn’t seen in his more than 30 years of firefighting experience.

“It was moving faster than I could drive,” he said.

In total, Potts said 60 firefighting personnel were on the scene from Umatilla, Hermiston, Echo, Pendleton, Heppner, Boardman, Irrigon and Ione.

When Angie Smith returned to her home on the top of Powerline Road in Umatilla on Tuesday morning, she was afraid there would be nothing left.

On Monday night her sister had called to let her know that there was a fire near her. She looked outside and saw the orange glow of flames through the smoky haze outside.

”The flames came right up the hill, right up toward my house,” she said. “It was horrible. A cop came to get me and I had about two minutes to leave.”

As the officer urged her to hurry, she grabbed her cat, her dog, her safe with important papers and a handful of photos and fled to Umatilla High School, where the school was offering restrooms, water and internet access to evacuees. Eventually she found a road between Umatilla and Hermiston that wasn’t closed and headed toward her sister’s house, where she spent the night.

Smith said when she returned the next morning she could see scorch marks right up to the edge of the road opposite her house, and felt extremely grateful for the fire departments that protected the home she just had built and moved into in March.

No one ended up needing to sleep overnight at Umatilla High School after evacuation orders began lifting at 9:30 p.m., but Superintendent Heidi Sipe said there were about 10 people who hung out inside the school and more who stayed in the parking lot with their pets for a few hours that evening.

”They were at least able to connect to WiFi and do what they needed to do during that period of waiting,” she said.

The next day, many Umatilla students were unable to participate in their second week of school as internet and electricity was still knocked out in parts of the city. Eastern Oregon Telecom reported on the morning of Sept. 8 that fiber in the McNary area was “destroyed” and some towers were not working. Around 1 p.m., the company reported that some areas were completely back online while Kyle Ridge was 90% online.

Steve Meyers, spokesman with Umatilla Electric Cooperative, stated in an email that approximately 2,500 customers were without power at the peak of the windstorm on Sept. 7, mostly north and east of Hermiston, along Highway 730 in Umatilla and in the Meacham area.

Only about 10 people in scattered locations remained without power as of Sept. 9 at 2:30 p.m., according to Meyers. Pacific Power indicated on its website that 21 customers in the Umatilla area remained without power as of 10:30 a.m. on Sept. 9.

Damage throughout Umatilla County

While gusty conditions were abundant throughout Umatilla County on Sept. 7, a majority of the damage inflicted was restricted to the west side of the county.

“It was pretty much just trees across the roadways, especially on the west end of the county over by Hermiston,” Umatilla County Commissioner John Shafer said. “Things were hopping over there for sure.”

Shafer noted that Banister Road, which runs between the cities of Athena and Weston, was briefly blocked by a downed power line.

The East Umatilla Fire and Rescue also found itself battling a wind-assisted fire of its own at 5:34 p.m. on Sept. 7 near Juniper Canyon and Vansycle roads north of Helix.

Although the fire threatened some structures, fire crews were able to use a back burn to help stop the blaze’s progress. Firefighters started mop-up duty of the 1- to 2-acre fire by 7:56 p.m. There were no reported injuries and the cause of the fire is still under investigation.

A few new fires were also recently reported in the Umatilla National Forest, but have quickly been contained.

“Fortunately for the Umatilla National Forest, we had contained all of our fires that we already had going prior to the big wind event,” said Darcy Weseman, spokeswoman for the Umatilla National Forest.

Weseman said a fire believed to be started by lightning a few weeks ago was contained Sept. 7 at about one-tenth of an acre about 24 miles southeast of Milton-Freewater in the North Fork Umatilla Wilderness, while a human-caused fire was contained at 7 acres by Lehman Hot Springs to the east of Ukiah.

A fire with an unknown cause and estimated at about one-quarter of an acre was reported about 15 miles west of Ukiah on Sept. 8, Weseman said, and resources have been deployed to the scene.

The Sept. 7 storm and wildfires were just the latest in a year already marred by historic flooding throughout the county in February, the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March, along with flooding in Pilot Rock brought on by record-level rainfall, and another windstorm on the west side of the county that both occurred in May.

The May windstorm, however, temporarily left more than 9,000 residents without power at the time as wind gusts reached up to 70 mph.

“Of course we’ve been through this before, but this one wasn’t as bad as the others,” Shafer said. “Hopefully, some people had new shingles down and they stayed down.”

Red Flag Warnings for extreme fire conditions have been lifted for the Columbia Basin and lower Blue Mountains. But the National Weather Service in Pendleton has forecasted conditions to remain hot and dry throughout the week and fire dangers remain high, according to the Blue Mountain Interagency Dispatch Center.

While winds from the north may bring a light haze of smoke from wildfires in Washington, western winds this weekend may also carry thicker clouds of smoke from the wildfires raging throughout the rest of Oregon, according to the National Weather Service.