In Southern Oregon on Thursday firefighters were pulled off some areas of the Bootleg Fire for their own safety. With extreme wildfire behavior causing large fire growth on the north side, it became too hazardous for crews, engines and heavy equipment so they relocated and regrouped.
The southeast side of the fire moved two to four miles east Thursday and crossed into Lake County. 
In the video below, retired smokejumper and Bootleg Fire Public Information Officer Jacob Welsh narrates from the front lines Thursday afternoon as equipment was relocating.
An overnight mapping flight determined that the Bootleg Fire had burned over 236,300 acres.
The Incident Management Team is also managing the Log Fire. It was active on its east side Thursday when the gap between the two narrowed to four miles.
Evacuation information for the fire is available HERE.
Bootleg Fire Daily Update July 16
Bootleg Update July 16, 2021
Location: 28 miles northeast of Klamath Falls, OR
Size: 241,497 acres
Containment: 7%
Personnel: 1,921
(Klamath Falls, OR) – For the fourth day in a row, firefighters withdrew from leading edges of the Bootleg Fire as extreme fire conditions fueled expansive fire growth. In the late afternoon, a large pyrocumulus cloud ‘collapsed’ further spreading embers to the east of the main fire and prompting additional evacuation notices for the communities of Summer Lake and Spring Lake in Lake County. Crews worked through the night to get dozer lines around spot fires over the 34 Road to the southeastern edge of the fire. To the north, crews continued to work against very active surface fire, spotting up to a half mile ahead of the main fire, and dry southern winds.
“The Bootleg Fire perimeter is more than 200 miles long- that’s an enormous amount of line to build and hold.” said Rob Allen, Incident Commander for the Pacific Northwest Area Incident Management Team 2. “We are continuing to use every resource from dozers to air tankers to engage where it’s safe to do so especially with the hot, dry, windy conditions predicted to worsen into the weekend.”
On Thursday, firefighters made excellent progress on the southern edge of the fire as winds pushed the fire back into itself. On the fire’s western edge, firefighters continue to successfully hold the existing containment lines and are patrolling for any remaining hotspots near the fireline. In addition, several crews will continue working to protect and wrap houses towards Paisley and Summer Lake as a precaution ahead of potential fire growth toward those communities over the coming days. Additional structural firefighters will arrive today to assist the east side of the fire with structure protection.
Community Meeting: Friday July 16, 2021 at 6:30pm at www.facebook.com/BootlegFireInfo. A recorded version will also be available on our new YouTube channel.
Evacuations: Visit tinyurl.com/bootlegevac for an interactive map of current evacuation levels.
Closures: Area closures in the Fremont-Winema National Forest at inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/7609/.
Smoke: Smoke impacts anticipated to Silver Lake, Paisley, and the greater Harney Basin. Full report at: fires.airfire.org/outlooks/southcentraloregon.
Fire Information Public Phone: 541-482-1331
Fire Information Media Phone: 971-727-7255
Inciweb: inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/7609/
Facebook: www.facebook.com/BootlegFireInfo
Twitter: twitter.com/BootlegFireInfo
What someone believes about the fires: Anonymous comment I just came across:
“The REAL reason on all the fires in North America… It’s to get rid of hiding
places to make it easier in the coming war… The movie Red Dawn is NO JOKE…”
.