July 17, 2026 — More than three dozen active wildfires are currently burning across Oregon and Washington. Oregon’s Emergency Conflagration Act has been invoked three times so far in 2026, and Washington’s legislature doubled its firefighting budget heading into this season anticipating exactly this kind of stretch. No single fire in either state has grown into a megafire yet. Instead, the story is breadth: more than a dozen concurrent starts of 1,000 to 8,000 acres, several under Level 3 “Go Now” evacuation orders, spread across both states at the same time.
Fires We’re Watching
Oregon
- Lower Dry Creek Fire (Umatilla County) — roughly 6,000-8,000 acres, 5% contained. More than 1,650 residents under Go Now orders; this is the first wildfire in Oregon in 2026 to receive a FEMA Fire Management Assistance Grant.
- Crosswhite Fire (Wheeler County) — about 4,000 acres, Level 1-3 evacuations in place. The Emergency Conflagration Act was invoked for this fire on the evening of July 15.
- East Evans Creek Fire (Jackson County) — 3,600+ acres, Level 3 evacuations near Shady Cove. Ignited when a driver crashed into a power pole.
- Brewer Fire (Jefferson County) — roughly 5,000 acres, currently the largest fire tracked in Central Oregon.
- Olive Butte and Salmon Fires (Grant County) — 2,400 and 1,500 acres respectively, both lightning-caused. Level 3 evacuations near Greenhorn and Baker City, with additional thunderstorms forecast to bring gusty winds rather than meaningful rain.
- Lytle Fire (Malheur County) — about 2,000 acres, exhibiting extreme fire behavior, Level 3 evacuations near Vale.
Washington
- Kaiser Canyon Fire (Okanogan County) — about 2,200 acres, Level 3 evacuations near Nespelem after igniting on July 16.
- Garred Road Fire (Grant County) — roughly 3,500 acres, Level 3 evacuations for the Sun Lakes area. State Fire Mobilization has been authorized as the fire threatens structures, a state park, and wheat fields.
- Plum Fire — a newer start adding to an already mounting regional load.
- Earlier this month, a fast-moving fire in Douglas County near Lake Chelan burned close to 10,000 acres and was reported to have destroyed more than 100 structures, the largest fire in Washington so far this season.
What’s Driving the Outbreak
NIFC has issued a dedicated Fuels and Fire Behavior Advisory for the Pacific Northwest. Record-low winter snowpack combined with ongoing drought has pushed live and dead fuel moistures to levels typically seen in mid-August, roughly a month ahead of the normal calendar. Recent lightning is producing efficient ignitions, and new fires are showing rapid initial growth. Fire managers are bracing for longer burn periods and increased resistance to control. Nationally, NIFC remains at Preparedness Level 4, with 49 uncontained large fires and more than 17,500 personnel committed coast to coast, which is precisely why Oregon has had to invoke its Emergency Conflagration Act three times already this year: state resources are being asked to fill gaps that national resources can no longer cover on demand.
Community and Air Quality Impact
Level 3 evacuation orders are active at the same time in Jackson, Baker, Union, Umatilla, and Wheeler counties in Oregon, and in Okanogan and Grant counties in Washington. Structures, a state park, and wheat fields are under direct threat in Washington’s Sun Lakes area. Smoke from the combined Oregon and Idaho fires is already degrading air quality across parts of the Pacific Northwest, prompting Washington state health officials to issue guidance for sensitive groups.
How This Compares Historically
Oregon’s largest fires on record dwarf anything currently burning: the 2021 Bootleg Fire reached 413,765 acres, and the 2024 Durkee Fire burned 294,265 acres. Washington’s 2021 season produced more than 830 fires and 484,000 burned acres statewide. What sets this outbreak apart isn’t size, it’s simultaneity. A dozen-plus fires of meaningful size are burning across two states at once, this early in the season, which is a different risk signature than a single slow-building megafire and arguably a harder one to resource against.
What This Means for the Industry
A seasonal outlook that says “above normal risk for the Pacific Northwest” doesn’t tell an underwriter which of a dozen simultaneous fires is closest to a given asset, or which one is about to turn. Static, annually refreshed risk models were never built for an outbreak pattern like this one; they can flag a region as elevated, but they can’t tell a carrier that a specific policy is fifteen miles from an uncontained 8,000-acre fire on a Tuesday morning. That gap is exactly why real-time monitoring, one that fuses active heat detection, weather, topography, and fuels at the address level, matters more in a multi-fire season than in a single-megafire one. Property Guardian’s Overwatch platform is built for this scenario specifically: tracking every active fire in a book of business simultaneously, not just the one making headlines.
Looking Ahead
Forecasters are watching a fresh round of dry lightning move through the region alongside hot, breezy conditions, the same setup that has produced several of this month’s starts. With snowpack long gone and fuels cured well ahead of schedule, any new ignition in Oregon or Washington over the next several weeks has the conditions to grow quickly. Expect this outbreak to be a matter of managing many moderate fires rather than one dominant one, at least until conditions change.
Sources
National Interagency Fire Center (National Fire News, Incident Management Situation Report, Northwest Coordination Center), Oregon State Fire Marshal, Oregon Wildfire Response and Recovery, Washington DNR wildfire reporting, and local coverage from KATU, KGW, KHQ, KREM, and FOX 13 Seattle.
