Firefighter dies battling central Oregon fire

A firefighter died while battling a wildfire in central Oregon sparked by one of some 1,800 lightning strikes to hit the area within 24 hours, officials said. Jim Hammick, 60, died after a being injured by a falling tree Thursday while battling a wildfire in the Mount Washington Wilderness near Dugout Lake in the Sisters Ranger District, KING-TV, Seattle, reported. Fellow firefighter Norman Crawford, 45, was injured by the same falling tree. "The injuries occurred as the tree fallers worked to suppress a fire caused by a lightning storm, which began early yesterday [Wednesday] afternoon and continued through the evening," said Jean Nelson-Dean, a spokesperson for the Deschutes National Forest. Firefighters were still fighting one large fire in central Oregon, about 13 miles northwest of Sisters, KING reported. Meanwhile, a complex of five wildfires grew by 4,000 acres Thursday in southern Oregon, The (Portland) Oregonian reported. -- The Douglas complex of fires has burned nearly 30,000 acres and was 7 percent contained. -- The Labrador fire northwest of Cave Junction burned nearly 2,000 acres and is zero percent contained. -- The Big Windy complex of fires northwest of Merlin is larger than the Labrador fire -- though exact acreage was not reported -- and is also zero percent contained. -- The Whiskey complex of fires east of Tiller has burned nearly 4,000 acres and is 15 percent contained. -- The size of the Brimstone fire, northwest of Merlin, was not reported, but it is 15 percent contained.