The Rowena Fire in Oregon on June 12, 2025, seen from east Mayer State Park.
Kristian Foden-Vencil / OPB
A fire that started in Rowena, Oregon, on Wednesday has since grown to more than 3,800 acres.
By Friday afternoon, the fire had destroyed 49 homes, according to the Wasco County Sheriff’s Office.
More than 8,000 nearby residents were under some sort of evacuation order. About 1,400 of those people were under Level 3: Go Now! orders as of Friday afternoon.
The Rowena Fire, which is threatening more than 800 homes, has been burning aggressively along the Columbia River Gorge, between Rowena and The Dalles, fueled by low ground moisture and gusty winds.
“It’s very early in fire season for us to be dealing with a large, fast-moving fire like the Rowena Fire, and deploying one of our incident management teams,” Craig Pettinger, a deputy incident commander with the Oregon Department of Forestry, said in a press release.
“It doesn’t bode well for what’s ahead of us knowing we already expect an active fire season. We have a lot of fire season ahead of us, and long seasons take a toll on our firefighters and communities across the state.”
The perimeter of the fire was still listed at 0% containment Friday. Investigators said Thursday that the fire was human-caused.
Related: Rowena Fire grows to 3,500 acres; investigators say it was human-caused
Meanwhile a fire that started Thursday about 50 miles southeast of the Rowena Fire, along the John Day River in Sherman County, has grown to more than 9,000 acres.
The Ferry Fire has spurred more evacuations and evacuation warnings. It’s threatening 50 homes.
It has also prompted the closure of the John Day River at Cottonwood Canyon State Park. And on Friday morning, the Bureau of Land Management closed all its lands within a 2-mile radius of the river, from Ferry Canyon to Interstate 84.
The perimeter of the Ferry Fire was listed at 5% containment Friday morning.
Investigators have not yet determined how it started.
Resources: Stay safe and informed during wildfire season with OPB’s wildfire guide at opb.org/wildfires. This resource offers essential safety tips and preparedness guidance to help you navigate fire and smoke events. This resource was created as part of our commitment to serving the public as wildfire seasons become longer and more dangerous.
