While nowhere close to the size yet, the Elbow Creek Fire bears some similarities to the last major fire to burn in the area. 

That would be the Grizzly Bear Complex that scorched more than 83,000 acres in 2015. 

Perhaps the most obviously similarity to the raging blaze from six years ago is the region. The fire burned, in part, in the area of Eden Bench west of Troy, along the Wenaha River and into Washington state.

“There are some similarities, primarily that this is difficult country to fight fire in,” said David Weaver, duty officer with the Oregon Department of Forestry.

The Elbow Creek Fire, which started Thursday, July 15, and has burned around 12,000 acres, is burning on Eden Bench, but on the opposite end from where the Grizzly burned. The 2015 fire burned the north side of the area. The Elbow Creek, so far, is burning the south side of it, though fire in that area is moving north.

“It’s basically the opposite, where the fire was over the Wenaha up to Grouse Flats on the north,” Weaver said. “(This one is) kind of a mirror image of Grizzly.”