B&B Complex Fires
| B&B Complex fires | |
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| Location | Cascade Range, Oregon |
| Coordinates | 44°38′05″N 121°45′23″W / 44.63486°N 121.75628°WCoordinates: 44°38′05″N 121°45′23″W / 44.63486°N 121.75628°W |
| Statistics | |
| Date(s) | August 19, 2003 – September 26, 2003 |
| Burned area | 90,769 acres (367 km2) |
| Cause | Lightning |
| Injuries | 8 |
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The B&B Complex fires were a linked pair of wildfires that together burned 90,769 acres (367.33 km2) of Oregon forest during the summer of 2003. The fire complex began as two separate fires, the Bear Butte Fire and the Booth Fire. The two fires were reported on the same day and eventually burned together, forming a single fire area that stretched along the crest of the Cascade Mountains between Mount Jefferson and Mount Washington. On the western side of the Cascades, the fire consumed mostly Douglas-fir and western hemlock. On the eastern side of the mountains, the fire burned mostly Ponderosa pine, lodgepole pine, and jack pine. Most of the burned area was on public land administered by the United States Forest Service including 40,419 acres (163.57 km2) within the Mount Jefferson Wilderness. The fire also burned forest land on the Warm Springs Indian Reservation and small areas of state and private land. Firefighters battled the blaze for 34 days. At the peak of the firefighting effort, there were over 2,300 personnel working on the fire. The cost of fire suppression was over $38 million.
The weather in the central Cascade Mountains in the area where the B&B Complex Fires occurred is highly seasonal and heavily influenced by local topography. In early August 2003, a series of thunderstorms passed over the central Cascades. Lightning strikes were recorded on 4, 5, 6, and 7 August. Over the next several weeks, a number of fires resulted from this lightning activity.
Following the storms in early August, local temperatures in central Oregon ranged from 80 to 90 degrees with relative humidity dropping below 20 percent. During this period, winds were 10 miles per hour (16 km/h) to 20 miles per hour (32 km/h), peaking on 19 August at approximately 30 miles per hour (48 km/h). This combination of hot dry weather and high winds created extreme fire conditions. As a result, creeping fires ignited by the early August lightning storms began to burn more actively. On 15 August a small fire was reported on the Warm Springs Indian Reservation. On 18 August, two more small fires were reported south of Santiam Pass near Hoodoo Ski Area. All three fires were quickly contained.
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