Wildfire Season Shaping Up As One Of The Worst

July 30, 2002

Portland, OR, - Rising firefighting costs, shrinking manpower and the worst kind of weather conditions are making this year's fire season in Oregon one of the most volatile in recent memory.

    And if weather patterns persist, experts say things likely will get much worse.
    
       "What's dismaying and a little frightening is that the level of fire activity is what we'd expect in August," said Rex Holloway, a U.S. Forest Service spokesman. "We haven't got to August yet. We're hoping Mother Nature will help us out, although we're preparing for the worst."
    
       As of Monday morning, there were 14 active fires burning in Oregon, all of them caused by lightning. A total of 12,145 firefighters are battling blazes in Oregon over a span of 305,422 acres.
    
       During the weekend, the biggest priority became the Cache Mountain fire 15 miles northwest of Sisters, which caused 5,000 residents of Black Butte Ranch resort area to evacuate. On Monday morning, 459 firefighters at the scene had it 25 percent contained.
    
       "Normally we'd have a series of storms go through in July, but generally, we don't get as many starts," Holloway said. "But this year there was more lightning, more starts and so we had fires earlier. If we keep on as projected, we can almost expect to have the same amount in August."
    
       Oregon's fires are continuing to spread because of the combination of the pervasive drought conditions east of the Cascades and the presence of dry lightning storms, according to George Taylor, the state climatologist.
    
       "There are some areas in Eastern Oregon where the vegetation is water- stressed, and it was pretty much ripe for fire events - human caused or natural caused," he said.
    
       Winds from the southeast - originating in the Gulf of Mexico - are blowing over New Mexico and Arizona, leaving moisture there, Taylor explained. The drier air continues north to Oregon. These winds also bring what he called "impulses" that produce lightning and thunderstorms.
    
       The wildfires will last until the region sees significant rainfall, said Taylor, who noted that September can be a very dry month.
    
       Lightning has caused all of Oregon's wildfires thus far this year.
    
       "I think things are likely to get progressively worse," Taylor said. He and Holloway share the same mantra: "Pray for rain."
       
       Stretching the skill pool
       
       Meanwhile, the Northwest Interagency Coordination Center, the Portland-based agency that coordinates local resources, has called 890 members of the Oregon National Guard to firefighting duty in recent weeks.
    
       There are also hordes of rural firefighters, inmate crews from Oregon and Washington state, U.S. Forest Service workers and firefighters from as far away as Australia and New Zealand. Depending on their skill level, they will receive a three- or five-day crash course in wildfire fighting skills before spending up to three weeks on location.
    
       Federal and state agencies are tapping into firefighting resources from wherever they can because there's a local shortage of qualified supervisors for firefighting crews, officials say.
    
       "There's specialized training these people go through," said David Widmark, a coordination center spokesman. "The last few years, we've lost a lot of overhead supervision primarily to retirements of all the federal and state agencies. . It's causing us some problems."
    
       It will take two to three fire seasons, Widmark said, until people with supervisory aspirations go through a mentoring process and work as assistants on fire lines. Meanwhile, firefighters and coordinators must work with what few resources they have.
    
       "Basically for six months out of the year it's like a war zone," Widmark said.
       
       Costs climbing
       
       Besides the manpower shortage, the other bad news is that firefighting budgets are shrinking while costs are rising. Fires in Oregon and Washington this season are already pushing $43.5 million in salaries, overhead, supplies and equipment, according to Widmark.
    
       The federal government has spent nearly $600 million fighting wildfires across the country and likely will exceed $1 billion by the end of the season, Holloway says. The most expensive wildfire season nationally so far was in 2000, when the federal government spent $1 billion.
    
       The federal budget for this season's wildfires was $321 million, down from $469 million in 2001 and $510 million in 2000. The difference will come from projects or contracts - not related to firefighting - that have been put on hold. One of the local projects being deferred is fulfilling requirements for the Americans With Disabilities Act at Timberline Lodge.
    
       It's costing more to fight fires, experts said, because more people are moving into what firefighters call "wildland urban interface" areas. Those environments are less wide-open and rural than many places in Eastern Oregon, with multiple homes, trees, brush and grasses susceptible to fire. More firefighters must be stationed in those areas to protect structures, and fighting fires there are tougher because homes are more exposed to the danger.
       
       Close to home
       
       While most fires happen in rural areas, people don't have to live in the middle of a forest to be concerned.
    
       "People here in the Portland area, even though we're wet a lot of the time, need to know it could happen here," Holloway said.
    
       On July 23, two fires hit the area. One occurred in West Linn, close to homes and structures. It burned a 50-by-50-foot area near Interstate 205, just behind West Linn High School. A lighter and matches were found nearby.
    
        The same morning, a fire broke out in the Skyline area when a man evading police drove into a wooded area, crashed in the middle of a grove of trees, and his vehicle became engulfed in flames. The blaze burned a 30-by-30-foot area.
    
       Last summer was another prime example of fires creeping into an urban area. A blaze in August torched a 1 1/2-mile stretch of a Willamette River bluff near the University of Portland. The fire threatened at least 100 North Portland homes. Firefighters then said the hot, dry conditions were as bad as they'd been in 25 to 30 years.
    
       Current conditions are similarly ripe.
    
       "It's not a matter of whether it's going to happen," Holloway said. "It's a case of when it's going to happen."

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