Lane County fights 16 fires across 4 complexes

Lane County commissioners discuss active wildfires. On July 30:

Commissioner Heather Buch: One thing that I did want to speak about today was wildfire. Since our last board meeting, clearly wildfires in our community have grown in number and size.

[00:00:19] In the East Lane district alone, there are more than 15 separate individual wildfires going, and in South Lane, five of them merged into one, into one pretty big one. This continues to be a real challenge on our landscape. We have thousands of wildfire firefighters in Oregon.

[00:00:45] Millions and millions of dollars are going towards resources in order to help fight these wildfires. Unfortunately there are much larger wildfires in other counties, adjacent to us, and pretty serious ones on the east side of the state where resources are going. This is the first time in my experience that there have been this many individual wildfires going on in East Lane. They are now combined into what we call complexes, so a group is called, a group of them is considered a complex.

[00:01:24] There are three different complexes of fires that are going on and, there are meetings all day long of all the activity that is happening. That is the first time in my experience that I’ve ever had more than one complex at a time. I am rotating my time between the individual complexes and trying to adjust to the ones that are the most urgent.

[00:01:54] Luckily, many of them are far away from the majority of the population. But there are still people out there living in individual homesteads close to these fires; there are people camping; and there are people traveling through that otherwise might not be aware that roads are closed in many of these locations.

[00:02:14] So I urge the public to ensure that you look at whether the roads are open before you take off into those areas or nearby those areas. There are applications online to help you do that. Lane County, of course, has at the top of our main webpage, an area to look for evacuations. There are people in Level 1 (evacuation alerts) across the county.

[00:02:40] But if you live in a rural area, you should pretty much always live at a Level 1, especially during fire season. It’s just a smart thing to do. And unfortunately we did lose yet another wildfire firefighter in a plane crash on the eastern side of the state. I think that’s the sixth one in a series of wildfire years that we’ve had recently.

[00:03:06] And it’s devastating. It’s devastating to hear that somebody has passed fighting fires on our behalf. It’s devastating to their family, and it’s devastating to those that are working with them at the time. So, my heart and thoughts definitely go out to that family. We should be aware that they are putting themselves on the line each and every single day that they are out there.

[00:03:32] And many of these people are coming from out of state, not necessarily from Oregon, and doing this on our behalf to save the lives of those nearby and their livelihoods. So please be diligent when you go out, and if you know people nearby, please check in with them.

[00:03:52] Commissioner Pat Farr: You know, when I was in the sixth grade, I emigrated to America. We took a train from Sheffield to Liverpool, a ship from Liverpool to New York, a Greyhound bus from New York to Portland, and then we took a Volkswagen from Portland to Tillamook.

[00:04:06] That was a great adventure for an 11-year-old. As you can well imagine, (I) saw so many things. The thing that stood out the most to me on that 8,000-mile journey was the last 50 miles driving through the Tillamook Burn. Starting in at Gales Creek and almost all the way to Tillamook was nothing but stumps of burned trees and forests being replanted.

[00:04:26] But it really stood out. I could not believe something of that magnitude that took place over three different conflagrations, years and years ago. To put that in perspective, all the burns between all three major Tillamook Burns covered about 355,000 acres. That’s an unbelievable, isn’t it?

[00:04:44] We currently have over 1 million acres burning in Oregon, three times the size of all the Tillamook burns combined. Commissioner Buch, thank you for being diligent, keeping track, where the state and Tiffany Brown, our emergency manager here in Lane County, are doing a very good job of keeping us very well informed of each fire, each complex and work that’s being done.

[00:05:07] I’m not going to try to elaborate on what Commissioner Buch said regarding the firefighters and the sobering work that is done by them, but, boy, we need to think about them at all times, support them in any way we can. And Mr. Rikhoff, I know you know, the county, all of our resources are fully behind that.

[00:05:24] Commissioner Ryan Ceniga: Commissioner Buch, thank you, that was a great description. Last night I was speaking with our PIO, and as we’re talking about how low we are on resources and the extent of these fires, another meeting happens, and, you know, so it just is non-stop right now, and sitting here, you want to do more, but there’s no more resources out there right now. It’s kind of a scary time.

[00:05:49] And I’d like to take a second also to thank our Sheriff’s Department during these events, if you will. Because, you know, our Sheriff’s Department, they’re overworked as it is and they’re spread thin and so this really adds to their plate too. I’d just like to take a second to thank everybody that goes up to these campgrounds in the middle of the smoke and clears them out and makes sure people aren’t where they shouldn’t be.

[00:06:10] And it kind of reminds me of back when I was on the United Front, (Eugene Springfield Fire) Chief Caven was telling me a story about being trapped up in Blue River. And you just start thinking about that story and it gives you chills right now. So, keep these people in your prayers and, we can do this, Lane County.

[00:06:27] Commissioner David Loveall: Commissioner Buch, great presentation on the fire. All that concerns us greatly, obviously, from the perspective of our constituents in Springfield. Our timber fallers and loggers are wanting to get back out in the forest and manage those timber properties better, so these fires aren’t a normal thing of every year.

[00:06:44] It was interesting this morning too, that our past emergency preparedness person Patence Winningham was on the radio. And she was saying how also the emergency preparedness people are stressed beyond their capacities because typically they were folks who trained and trained for the one epic event that happened maybe every five or ten years, not three events that happen every single year.

[00:07:04] So we need to keep those folks in mind too as they’re tasked beyond their capacities as well of all the resources that they have to deal with to try to fight all these things.

[00:07:13] Commissioner Laurie Trieger: I will just add to the chorus of appreciation and also warnings about the fire on the landscape and the strain it puts on the communities, first and foremost, that are experiencing, whether it’s smoke inundation or actual threat of fire, but also on the resources, not only of our first responders, but emergency managers more broadly.

[00:07:33] Not only are these the highest number of fires, but it’s the earliest we’ve seen. I mean, we really don’t usually have this level of fire activity and intensity when we haven’t even quite yet turned the calendar page to the month of August yet. So it’s really concerning, and we are not the only state experiencing this.

[00:07:53] And as Commissioner Buch mentioned, firefighters travel all over the country and go where they’re needed. And so the resources are just unbelievably strained and over capacity everywhere and crews are moving around from state to state, but we have already less resource than we need to fight the fire we have on the landscape now. And as those fires grow and new ones start and other states are experiencing this, we are in for some very challenging weeks until the rains come back in October. So thank you to everyone working, and all my best wishes for safety.

[00:08:28] Greg Rikhoff (acting Lane County administrator): To your comments on the wildfire, we do have an update for you. The general overview, this is from Lane County Emergency Manager Tiffany Brown:

[00:08:37] Events began July 16 and have grown into 16 fires across four complexes. This is early in the season. We’ve already seen fires in the Siuslaw National Forest, Pleasant Hill, and the Mohawk Valley. Most of the current impact areas are U.S. Forest Service, with operations managed and the situation monitored via incident management teams across the country.

[00:09:02] Today, things are relatively calm with little activity over the past few days. At this time, there are no immediate critical concerns regarding residences or infrastructure. There are currently several Level 1 evacuations in place for the Lane 1 and the Chalk Fires. Long term strategic planning is occurring across all incidents, and the IMTs (incident management teams) are conducting daily briefings, community meetings, and communication has been good overall.

[00:09:29] There are grave concerns regarding future available personnel. All available teams across the country are currently deployed with 14-day terms that begin this week. County staff and the Sheriff’s Office and Search and Rescue have been heavily engaged across the county with all incidents since July 16 on a number of fronts. They’re doing evacuation assistance, emergency alerting, public outreach and advanced planning.

[00:09:57] Public Health continues to monitor smoke conditions for unsafe conditions about which the public needs to be aware. The Emergency Management staff has the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) in a ready state and the staff are poised to activate as needed at any time.

[00:10:15] Currently there are no downstream needs such as evacuation or sheltering.

[00:10:21] For now, the EOC remains in a warm state, partially activated to support current needs from the public and tactical partners. Emergency manager activities currently include hosting cooperator calls, issuing situation reports, attending community meetings across all complexes, attending partner meetings and briefings, IMTs, and Oregon Emergency Management meetings, field periodic requests for information, resources, and coordination for members of the local fire defense board, state agencies, the sheriff’s office, and the IMTs.

[00:10:55] John Q: Lane County leaders discuss the current fire season on July 30.

Gov. Kotek orders flags lowered in memory of firefighter

Gov. Tina Kotek ordered flags at Oregon public institutions to be flown at half-staff between sunrise on July 31 to sunset on Aug. 1 in memory of James Bailey Maxwell.

Maxwell, an Idaho resident, was piloting a single engine air tanker (SEAT) in the vicinity of the Falls Fire located near Seneca, Oregon on the Malheur National Forest. The SEAT went missing the evening of July 25 and was recovered by Grant and Harney County sheriff search and rescue and personnel assigned to the fire on the morning of July 26.

“I am deeply saddened by the tragic death of Mr. Maxwell while he fought the Falls Fire. On behalf of Oregon, I want to extend my condolences to Mr. Maxwell’s family, loved ones, and fellow firefighters,” Gov. Kotek said. “I would also like to thank the search and rescue team for their quick recovery efforts to bring Mr. Maxwell home.”