WESTFALL — Jeff Romans rode his ATV Friday out to the charred hills and ridges of the federal grazing land near his ranch and remembered how grasshoppers pummeled his face by the hundreds as wildfire rushed through the high desert near the Oregon-Idaho border.

Two weeks ago as winds pushed flames and smoke all around him, he had used his ATV to corral his cattle, shouting at them to go “home” toward the safety of the green grass on the ranch about 13 miles away.

Now, he looked over the damage in this vast, desolate space of rolling hills, rocky cliffs and sagebrush, north of U.S. 20. He fears more damage as Oregon suffers one of its earliest and most virulent wildfire seasons, now turned deadly.

Earlier Friday, rescuers found the wreckage of a plane and body of a pilot flying a tanker near the Falls fire, north of Burns.

The Durkee fire, southeast of Baker City, has for days held the distinction of being the largest wildfire in the country. It has merged with the Cow Valley fire, forging a 662-square-mile swath between Baker City and Ontario.

The Cow Valley fire is the one that rode roughshod over Romans’ grazing allotment. When the fire reached his range around July 12, Romans and his employees managed to save virtually all of the 600 cattle roaming in the path of the encroaching flames that steadily consumed the grass and sagebrush.

He wrapped up early in the morning after a day and a half moving the cattle but then was back out on the grazing land six hours later to fight the fire. He has yet to move most of the cattle to other grazing land west of his ranch that’s only about seven miles away from another active fire.

Romans, 40, doubles as a volunteer firefighter and regularly checks how fast the fires near his ranch are growing, ready to jump in and help those fighting them, if necessary.

Most of the Cow Valley fire roughly parallels U.S. 26 between Baker City and Vale. The fire began July 11 and was one of several fires officials said were ignited by people that day. It’s not clear how exactly someone started the fire. It grew to 133,490 acres and is now almost entirely contained.

Roman is turning to reckoning with how the fire will affect his and others’ livelihoods — while keeping an eye on several new fires burning west of his ranch, near Westfall — an unincorporated community of mostly ranchers in Malheur County, miles away from any major route.

As he toured his grazing allotment Friday, he pointed out a calf that he believes died from smoke inhalation lying dead by a creek. It was the lone known casualty among his herd, he said.

Cows rarely die from severe burns in rangeland fires, unless they get trapped in an encroaching fire with nowhere to go, he said. But fires can cause blisters on their legs, and their udders can start to disintegrate in the heat. In both cases, the cows usually have to be put down, he said.

Romans drove up to a viewpoint revealing a wide and distant expanse of black fields that he said were all someone’s now-useless grazing land. Some ranchers will be in a difficult position because of the fires, he said.

Ranching, like farming, is a delicate business, with margins and expenses that don’t usually allow for unexpected catastrophes. Some ranchers in the area who lost all their grazing land might be forced to either buy hay to feed their cattle, or sell their stock, he said.

Romans will take a hit, too, he said, but nothing he can’t tolerate. He no longer has enough rangeland for all his cows to graze through summer.

But he has a workaround: Romans said he grows enough hay each year to feed his cattle in the winter and have some left over that he sells for profit. This year, he’ll use that surplus to feed the cows that now have nowhere to graze.

But more fires are almost certain to wreak havoc with his and others’ equations.

“I’m concerned,” Romans said. “We’re a long way from over.”

— Fedor Zarkhin is a breaking news and enterprise reporter with a focus on crime. Reach him at 971-373-2905; fzarkhin@oregonian.Our journalism needs your support. Subscribe today to OregonLive.com.