Oregon and Washington have now burned more than 1.3 million acres this year, already ahead of the 10-year average for a full fire season, with months still to go. More than 30 large wildfires are active across the two states, including the Rowe Creek Complex near Fossil (over 200,000 acres), the Kaiser Canyon Fire on the Colville Indian Reservation (roughly 121,000 acres), and the Akawa Butte Fire near Sisters, currently the nation's top firefighting priority. Nationally, 92 large fires are burning, and the country is at National Preparedness Level 5, the highest alert level, meaning firefighting resources are fully committed.
Hundreds of people have already been evacuated from communities near the Rowe Creek Complex, and smoke has pushed air quality to unhealthy levels across Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Montana. Dry, hot, windy conditions and no rain in the forecast mean this fire weather isn't easing up soon.
If you're not yet in the fire's path
If you're in the region but not currently under an evacuation order, you're probably watching the smoke and checking the map, hoping it stays that way. That's genuinely useful time, not wasted worry. It's the window to get a few things in order before you might have to leave in a hurry:
- Know your evacuation zone and route, and keep a go-bag ready with medications, documents, and essentials.
- Talk with your insurance agent about your coverage and what documentation you'd need if you ever had to file a claim.
- Create a record of what you own, before you need one.
That last one is the easiest to put off, and the hardest thing to do well under pressure. Trying to reconstruct a full household inventory from memory after a fire, with adjusters asking for specifics, is one of the most stressful parts of recovery.
A record you can build in the time you have
This is exactly why we built Homvi. Walk through your home with your phone, room by room, and AI identifies what's there and estimates its value automatically. A wide-shot pass of a room takes a few minutes to start, with the option to go back later and add serial numbers, receipts, or appraisals to anything worth itemizing more carefully. Our guide on documenting a home quickly walks through both the fast pass and the more thorough version.
Your camera roll lives on the same phone in your pocket, just as vulnerable to a fast-moving fire as the house it's documenting. Homvi's record lives in the cloud instead, so it's still there even if the phone isn't.
Preparedness, not panic
Most homes near an active fire season never end up in the fire's direct path. But 25,000+ firefighters are stretched across the country right now, and conditions in the Northwest aren't improving this week. If you have safe time today, it's worth spending a few minutes of it making sure that, whatever happens, you'd already have a clear record of what you own.