Juniper Ridge Fire Urban Interface Incident 2020

The Juniper Ridge Fire started at approximately 1530 on 8/15/20 just north of Bend, Oregon. The fire was started at a transient camp and quickly spread to surrounding fuels. Multiple neighborhoods and businesses were threatened and were placed in a Level 3 evacuation order by the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office. Bend Fire & Rescue responded quickly to the incident and immediately requested mutual aid from both structure and wildland agencies. Central Oregon Fire Management Service responded with multiple ground and air resources and went into unified command with Bend Fire & Rescue shortly after resources arrived. The fire quickly spread into structures and businesses within the fire area, including an auto wrecker/salvage yard company. The Wildland resources on the fire were not engaged in the wrecking yard but were working on multiple flanks in the wildland in close proximately. As the wind shifted, wildland responders were exposed to smoke coming from the multiple vehicles on fire in the wrecking yard.