HERMISTON — A large, fast-moving brush fire broke out Friday afternoon, June 13, in Hermiston, prompting Level 3 — “go now” — evacuations and destroying a number of old school buses.

The buses, however, belonged to a private party and not a school district.

The blaze kicked off around 3 p.m. in the area of Bensel Road and Liberty Lane. Umatilla County Fire District No. 1 rushed to the scene, and the Umatilla County Sheriff’s Office soon issued evacuation notices for the area south of Bensel Road to Klaus Road and east of Highway 395 to Alpine Drive.

In addition to Umatilla County Fire District No. 1, numerous local agencies responded to quell the blaze, including fire departments from Heppner, Pilot Rock, Athena and the Umatilla Indian Reservation.

The fire district at 4:44 p.m. on its Facebook page reported the efforts resulted in stopping the fire’s forward progress. But by then, the fire burned through old school buses in a grass lot off Liberty Lane.

Umatilla County Fire District No. 1 at 6 p.m. reported the evacuations were no longer in effect.