Smoky Portland air isn't common (yet), but disastrous Oregon wildfires always have been
By Douglas Perry, Oregonian Aug 15, 2018
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But while large wildfires are becoming more frequent, largely thanks to climate change, they're certainly not new to the region. Consider the Tillamook Burn, which the Oregon Encyclopedia describes as "a catastrophic series of large forest fires in the northern Oregon Coast Range mountains 50 miles west of Portland. It began in 1933 and struck at six-year intervals through 1951, burning a combined total of 355,000 acres (554 square miles)."
The first one ignited on August 14, 1933, and that fire was in many respects the worst of the series. The blaze created explosions in the forest that sent one column of smoke -- "looking very much like a head of a cauliflower," offered an Oregonian reporter who witnessed it from an airplane -- rising about 40,000 feet high.
"The fire itself created hurricane winds that ripped huge fir trees from the ground and threw them about," Oregon History's Doug Kenck-Crispin wrote last year. He added that "ships about 500 miles at sea reported flaming debris landing on their decks."
"Fire Crews Flee As Flames Rage," The Oregonian headlined on the front page of its Friday, August 25, edition.
