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--> --> Dozens of wildfires burn east of Cascades LA GRANDE (AP) - Dozens of wildfires burned across central and eastern Oregon on Thursday, including a grass fire on the Umatilla Chemical Depot near Hermiston and a 7,600-acre wildfire south of Burns. More than 1,000 dry lightning strikes during the previous 24 hours touched off as many as 100 fires, said David Widmark, spokesman for the Northwest Interagency Coordination Center in Portland. Most were burning in grass and sagebrush, he said. None were reported west of the Cascades. A grass fire blackened 200 acres of the 19,700-acre Umatilla Chemical Depot between about 10 a.m. and 11:30 a.m., said depot commander Lt. Col. Tom Woloszyn. It was ignited by a spark from an all-terrain vehicle operated by a private contractor on a decommissioned rifle range, he said. Driven by 20-mph winds the flames were on the north end of the depot, at least two miles from the high-security K-Block area where 7.2 million pounds of nerve and mustard agents are stored, Woloszyn said. Firefighters from nearby Umatilla and Hermiston assisted the U.S. Army, he said. The largest fire in the region was the 7,600-acre Big Stick Fire, sweeping across the rugged high desert 30 miles south of Burns, Widmark said. Fueled by high grass and sagebrush and driven by 20-mph winds, it was ignited at 3:15 p.m. Wednesday and was being battled by 57 firefighters. A fire that burned 360 acres on the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation on Wednesday was being mopped up, he said. Lightning ignited 26 small fires in the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest in northeastern Oregon, said Scott Stutzman, another spokesman for the Northwest Interagency Coordination Center. All of those fires were less than a quarter-acre in size and included several within the 364,325-acre Eagle Cap Wilderness, he said. The Wallowa County Sheriff's Office in Enterprise reported a small fire on Chief Joseph Mountain, inside the wilderness and above the city of Joseph. Fire danger in the Northwest is high, and at least 1,000 firefighters and two air tankers were being held in reserve in the region, Widmark said. Email your... Technical questions & comments to: WebMaster Daily Tidings editorial comments & questions to: Editor Visit our other Oregon Newspapers... | Albany Democrat-Herald | Ashland Daily Tidings | Corvallis Gazette-Times | | Lebanon Express | Newport News-Times | Springfield News | Cottage Grove Sentinel | Ashland Daily Tidings 1661 Siskiyou Blvd. Ashland, OR 97520 Telephone 541-482-3456 © Copyright 2001 Lee Northwest Publishing