Oregon Invokes Emergency Conflagration Act for 3 Fires, Marking 10th Use in 2026

2 articles · Updated · Fox 12 Oregon · Jul 26

Three Oregon wildfires — Beachcomb, Bench and Second Flat — triggered the Emergency Conflagration Act on Sunday, prompting the state fire marshal to deploy an incident management team and additional resources.
The move came as hot, dry weather and active fire behavior strained crews already assigned to six conflagrations and several immediate-response incidents across Central and Eastern Oregon.
On the Warm Springs Reservation and in Jefferson County, the Bench Fire had burned 6,201 acres and the Beachcomb Fire 2,352 acres, with both at 0% containment after the Beachcomb blaze crossed the Deschutes River and spread over U.S. Highway 26.
Evacuations also escalated elsewhere: parts of Umatilla and Union counties went to Level 3 because of the Hagen Fire, while Crook County raised alerts near the Green Mountain and Crosswhite West fires.
The latest declarations were the ninth and tenth invocations of the act this year, underscoring a statewide wildfire season that has already scorched hundreds of thousands of acres.

Sources

With state resources stretched thin by simultaneous mega-fires, what happens when the next massive blaze erupts in Oregon?

As the Bench Fire explodes to over 20,000 acres, can firefighters protect communities before the deadly winds shift again?

Why are unauthorized civilian drones suddenly threatening the survival of Oregon communities in the path of these unstoppable wildfires?

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