Zeke Lunder discusses the Flat Fire in Oregon, highlighting its geographical similarities to Westwood, California, and its impact on urban areas like Bend and Sisters. The fire, influenced by strong winds and dry conditions, posed a threat to homes but showed minimal growth from 9:30 PM on 8/23/2025 thru noon today, 8/24/2025. Lunder emphasizes the conservative nature of fire containment reports and notes the rapid cooling of grass/desert fires. He also briefly mentions the Pickett Fire in California, which was fairly subdued today. Watch the livestream, below, or scroll on for a summary and maps. Also, we report on current fuel moistures across NorCal, and a new start in Siskiyou County.
Cover photo: Flat Fire Information Facebook Page
Here is an operations map for the Flat fire for 8/25/2025.
Flat Fire Overview and Personal Background
- Zeke Lunder introduces himself and mentions his recent trip to Westwood, California, in Lassen County.
- He describes the geographical similarities between Lassen County and the Flat Fire area, highlighting the dry, ‘east-side’ conditions, pine and desert vegetation, and wind factors.
- Zeke provides a brief history of the Lookout project, emphasizing its role in wildfire education and his extensive experience in wildfire.
- He outlines the limited intelligence available on the Flat Fire due in part to the lack of webcams and frequent midday IR flights in Oregon compared to California.
Flat Fire Infrared Mapping from 9:30 pm, 8/23/2025
Red areas had intense heat, yellow areas were cooling down.
Infrared imagery from noon, 8/24/2025.
Red line shows IR from previous night, to show minimal growth in between.
Geographical Context and Fire Behavior
- Zeke explains the geographical features of the Flat Fire area, including the Cascade Mountains, East Side pine, and the desert influence.
- He describes the fire’s behavior, noting the strong northeast winds and the fire’s push towards the city of Sisters.
- The fire’s proximity to urban areas and the efforts to protect homes are discussed, with Zeke using midday infrared imagery to track the fire’s progress.
- He highlights the fire’s cooling off and the conservative approach of fire agencies in determining containment.
Infrared Imagery and Fire Spread
- Zeke presents infrared imagery taken at 9:30 PM on 8/23/2025 and noon, 8/24/2025 showing the fire’s spread and cooling off.
- He explains the fire’s activity in the grass and desert areas, noting the rapid cooling of burnt grass.
- The conservative nature of fire agencies in reporting containment is reiterated, with Zeke suggesting the fire might be largely done, despite minimal official containment.
- He discusses the use of webcams to monitor the fire’s behavior and the challenges of running dozers in steep terrain.
Terrain and Fire Behavior Analysis
- Zeke examines the terrain features affecting the fire’s behavior, including steep gullies and mini-bluffs.
- He explains how the wind funnels through the landscape, influencing the fire’s spread.
- The challenges of running dozers along the fire’s edge due to steep terrain are discussed.
- Zeke highlights the difficulty of using infrared webcam imagery to accurately assess fire behavior at night.
Pickett Fire and Other California Fires
- Zeke briefly mentions the Pickett Fire in California, noting its subdued behavior today.
- He briefly discusses the Sky Fire in Lake County, which did not amount to much.
- He mentions many new lightning strikes and small fires from recent thunderstorms and lightning fires in Northern and Southern California, noting the moisture brought by the storms in some places.
- He invites viewers to contact him via the Lookout website for specific inquiries or to suggest topics for future broadcasts.
Energy Release Components (Flamability Index) are relatively low for Northeastern California, somewhat reducing concerns that the current lightning ignitions in Lassen and Modoc Counties will become large fires.
ERCs are closer to average in the Klamath Mountains, making growth of new starts (in areas that didn’t get significant rain with the storms) more likely to experience rapid growth. There is a new start (Bear Incident) east of Fort Jones, in Scott Valley, which is currently growing rapidly.
We are also tracking the explosive growth of the Garnet Incident, east of Fresno, on the Sierra National Forest. This fire’s growth was influenced by upper-level ‘mountain wave’ winds and an extremely unstable atmosphere.
Webcam images and video courtesy of Alert California.
Garnet Fire Area Fire History
