The Lookout

After big movements last week, the Timber and Plaskett Fires, burning in Big Sur and the South Coast, have been pretty subdued over the past 4 days. Our Lookout Livestream, last night, provides a map update showing the concentrated areas of fire heat and new spread, which has been very minimal. This doesn’t mean the … Read more

This Lookout Livestream covers a recent prescribed burn conducted by First Rain Land Stewards near Nevada City above North Bloomfield Road in a very productive mixed-conifer and hardwood forest (cedar, sugar pine, black oak, madrone) with heavy fuels and dense thickets in places, especially cedar. First Rain has grown from an organic farm into a … Read more

UPDATED 10am, 9/1/2026. In the Lookout Livestream and written analysis, below, we take a look at the long-term prospects for the Plaskett Fire, on the Central Coast. If the fire isn’t held from spreading farther south into the Silver Peak Wilderness, the broken topography, lack of recent fires, and roadless nature of the Wilderness, all … Read more

Zeke provides an update on the Timber and Plaskett wildfires in Big Sur and the Sinlahekin fire in Washington. MAP UPDATES: 8/29/2026 Big Sur/Timber Fire Updates As of morning of 8/29, the eastern side of the fire has very little spread with the cooler weather. The fire is largely at the tops of the ridges, … Read more

The Timber Fire in Big Sur’s Ventana Wilderness is entering a critical phase, with extreme weather, rugged terrain, and heavy fuels driving steady westward spread toward Manuel Peak which sits just inland of the Big Sur Valley. It is likely that the fire will get over the ridge, which has very difficult access and a … Read more

Fire ecologist and aerial infrared mapping pioneer Dr. Tim Ball joined The Lookout to break down how wind, fuel, and terrain shape wildfire behavior from Reno’s Hawk Fire to the Big Sur backcountry. Drawing on decades of flying fires and studying plant ecology, he and Zeke dug into Zephyr winds, cheatgrass invasion, and what historic … Read more

The Timber Fire, in Big Sur, is opening a new chapter. As fuel conditions dry out, and the fire leaves the area of coastal influence, it is now free to burn east thru the Ventana Wilderness. 9:30pm update The fire added about 1,000 acres between 5:30pm and 9pm, this evening. Here is our evening briefing … Read more

The Timber Fire, in Big Sur, continues to grow to the east. In the past 2 days, the fire has pushed about a mile deeper into the canyons of the Ventana Wilderness, where steep, broken terrain makes fighting the fire directly very difficult for ground-based firefighters. Helicopters have been used over the past 10 days … Read more

Achieving beneficial fire effects with either a prescribed fire or even a wildfire is all about the conditions. Fire doesn’t care about calendar dates. However, regulating agencies have often suspended burn permits on strict calendar dates, regardless of actual conditions. In the Klamath Mountains, in Northwestern California, locals have been burning straight through this summer, … Read more

North of Reno along Highway 395, the Bug Fire ignited near the agricultural inspection station and has since merged with the Fred Fire, with the Stallion Fire burning farther north toward Pyramid Lake. Scroll down for updates on fires in the Pacific Northwest! Current Situation The Bug–Fred portion: Initially ran hard to the east under … Read more

This report looks at the current conditions and expected fire behavior on the Timber Fire, in Big Sur, California. In the video, below, we use our trademark style of live mapping and storytelling to examine how wildfire works in Big Sur’s mishmash of unique environments, and how the terrain, fuels, and weather affect options for … Read more

Western Fire Season Enters Relentless Phase as New Incidents Erupt from Big Sur to the North Cascades The Western fire season has shifted into a fuel‑driven, landscape‑scale phase, with emerging and established fires stretching from California’s Big Sur coast through the Klamath River region, Eastern Oregon, and deep into Washington’s North Cascades. In our latest … Read more

Good morning. Today is August 8, 2006, and we’re reporting on fires in the Pacific Northwest. Yesterday was a deadly day for firefighters in the American West. Two helicopter pilots died on the Widemouth 2 Fire in Central Utah, and a dozer operator died the night before last, during a blowup on the Wrights Spring … Read more

The Grasshopper Fire spreads steadily toward Mount Hood, the Brewer/Box Springs Fires resist indirect attack, two fires that have been smouldering for weeks are cranking, now, and the well-established fires in North-Central Washington are mainly contained or not spreading much, with exception of Sinlahekin and Little Giant. We forgot to cover the emerging Wright’s Spring … Read more

This livestream walks through why the Pacific Northwest saw a relative slowdown in fire activity after an extremely active day on the 1st, and what the sudden shift in fire behavior reveals about weather, fuels, and urban wildfire risk. Watch the Lookout Livestream, here, or scroll down to read it. Weather Pattern: A Needed Breather … Read more

Pacific Northwest Morning Report: Fire-By-Fire Breakdown Recorded August 2, 2026 This morning’s Lookout briefing walks through an intense and rapidly evolving fire situation across Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. Watch the full livestream, below, or scroll down for a written version, with static maps, organized fire-by-fire.   Washington Fires Spokane Area Fires: Autumn Lane, Old Trails, … Read more

In tonight’s Lookout Livestream, we review maps and intel for the Pacific Northwest to try to get a handle on which fires might have the greatest potential for radical spread with tomorrow’s forecast for extreme fire spread weather conditions. Any fire which is currently still active has potential, but the following ones stand out: The … Read more

This episode of The Lookout Livestream discussed fires in France, Spain, and Eastern Oregon, highlighting the role that conifer plantations had played in fueling the extreme fire behavior currently being seen on large fires near Bordeaux. We note the Bordeaux region’s historical land management, which includes planting over 1,000,000 acres of dense conifer forest over … Read more

We opened our briefing on 7/26/2026 with a map of more than a million acres of active fire in Oregon alone. This post steps back from the incident-by-incident view to ask a bigger question: how does fire actually behave at landscape scale, and what does that mean for our real options in managing it? The … Read more

2-years ago, the destructive and massive Park Fire swept across Butte County, burning hundreds of homes. Today, we’re sharing the story and technical details of how a local homeowner and his son were able to save their home during an intense firefight on the first night of this fire, using an irrigation/firefighting system they had … Read more

It’s crazytown in the Pacific Northwest, today. The Rowe Creek Complex and Hay Creek Complex are basically connected now, and the Brewer and Box Springs have grown into the Rowe Creek Complex. The Beachcomb/Bench Fires are trying to eat Warm Springs, and the Shingle Fire added about 70k acres, yesterday. The Grasshopper Fire, east of … Read more

Welcome back to The Lookout! We have a fresh newsletter out this morning. Be sure to subscribe to the newsletter if you’d like to get our wildfire-related reporting and other writings dropped sporadically into your inbox! Several new fires have emerged over the past 24 hours in the Pacific Northwest, and grown large quickly under … Read more

In the Pacific Northwest, numerous new wildfires have been growing since a fast-moving lightning storm moved through the region on the afternoon of July 22nd. Many of the large fires that started a week earlier have burned much of the fuel that was available to them and gone out, or been extinguished by firefighting. Despite … Read more

Akawa Butte Fire Pushes Toward Sisters as Lightning Bust Ignites New Blazes Across Oregon Date: July 22, 2026 Location: Sisters, Oregon, broader Pacific Northwest, California Last week, a volatile mix of dry fuels, hot temperatures, and fast-moving thunderstorms pushed Oregon’s fire season into high gear, with multiple large fires breaking out from the eastern slopes of … Read more

Rumsey, Chute, Biscar, East Evans Creek, Akawa Butte, and Aspen Acres in Focus By The Lookout – July 20, 2026 After a slow start in California, the state joins a wildfire season that has been well-underway across the American West. In a wide‑ranging briefing on July 20, The Lookout’s Zeke Lunder walked viewers through emerging and … Read more

Brook Fire Burnover: Vina Helitack Crew Suffers Minor Injuries in Near-Miss Entrapment On Backbone Ridge, just east of Redding, a Cal Fire Vina Helitack crew experienced a burnover yesterday on the Brook Fire during initial attack operations. Seven firefighters received minor burn injuries and were transported by helicopter to Redding, where they were treated and … Read more

Oregon and Washington Lightning Bust Spurs Dozens of Large Fires, Straining Crews from Medford to the Columbia Plateau Date: Sunday, July 19, 2026 By: The Lookout A major lightning bust across Oregon has ignited a sprawling web of fires from Southern Oregon to the Columbia Plateau, rapidly stretching firefighting resources and creating a highly volatile … Read more

Good morning, We are covering the large lightning bust that pounded Oregon in the past few days, sparking many large fires, mainly east of US Route 97, and north of US Route 20. Generally north and east of Bend. Scroll down for new maps for the Evans Creek Fire, near Medford. Lightning Fires and Recent … Read more