State fire experts are expecting an even more aggressive and difficult wildfire season this summer but said they are prepared and positioning themselves to respond quickly in light of last year’s staggering burns.
Despite a considerable amount of winter moisture and strong snow pack at higher elevations, Oregon’s increasingly hotter, drier summers will quickly dry out vegetation and create dangerous conditions, Gov. Tina Kotek said at a news conference Wednesday.
“Fire season is here,” she said. “By July and August we will experience above average severity that will culminate in September and October as we reach peak fire danger.”
The conference was held at the Oregon Department of Forestry’s fire cache in Salem, where the agency keeps millions of dollars worth of equipment and supplies for its logistics and tactical teams and for firefighters around the state. Kotek also signed a proclamation declaring May “Wildfire Awareness Month.”
Kotek and the forestry department’s deputy director, Kyle Williams, said that after last year’s record-breaking fires — nearly 2,000 of them that burned nearly 2 million acres — they’ve learned to declare emergencies early so agencies can collaborate and coordinate, to boost aerial surveying for wildfires to get to them before they grow and to establish more spots around the state where helicopters, planes and crews can land and be deployed quickly.
Oregon’s Department of Forestry is hoping to fill 400 seasonal firefighting jobs to compliment about 300 permanent staff, Williams said. Oregon State Fire Marshal Mariana Ruiz-Temple said her agency will bring on 1,500 structural firefighters for the season.
“Other than that, we’re going to rely on our partners again,” Williams said.
Those partners include the more than 11,000 firefighters from more than 300 fire departments around the state who make up the Oregon Fire Mutual Aid System, firefighting companies that have hand crews and equipment the state can contract and federal wildland firefighters.
