Wildfire experts across the state expect the already-intense fire season to continue into August and September — and potentially worsen.
Fires across Eastern Oregon are the largest in the country right now, with five megafires burning more than 100,000 acres each and a grand total of nearly 1 million acres burned this year.
In a Zoom meeting Friday, Aug. 2, Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, heard from federal, state and local firefighting officials about the status of fires in the state and what they need entering the next month of fire season.
More fire than normal
“I think we’re going to have more of the same, if not exponentially higher for the next several weeks,” said Matt Hoehna, assistant district forester for the Oregon Department of Forestry’s Northeast Oregon District. “We’re so far ahead in fuels conditions and fire conditions than we would normally be at this time of year.”
Hoehna said high fire weather is expected in the coming week.
“All across the board, we’re all here together trying to bring the right capacity,” he said. “And I think we’re all hitting our limits.”
For Wyden, the meeting was a chance to learn about conditions on the ground from the people who are facing the fires.
“Just know I’m operating under the assumption it’s all in every day now,” he told officials at the end of the meeting, “because I think that we are looking at one of the toughest summers because everybody’s going to be up simultaneously.”
Fatigue a major concern
Wildland firefighting teams from different agencies are working to contain the fires and prevent their spread. Officials such as Eric Watrud, forest supervisor for the Umatilla National Forest, said as more agencies bring resources to the region, he hopes there will be continued collaboration.
“We’ve invested heavily in those relationships over the years and that has paid off wonderfully,” he said. “It helps to keep our communities and firefighters safe and really helps during these times when resources are really stretched to be able to share and support each other, whether that’s initial attack on new starts or continuing with longer term incidents.”
Others echoed Watrud’s perspective. Jason Brandt, deputy forest supervisor with the Malhuer National Forest, said the Oregon Department of Forestry has brought in the Oregon National Guard to help with the Telephone Fire near Burns, and those extra resources already helped bolster efforts there.
However, for so early in the fire season, there has been a tremendous amount of work required of firefighters already, and officials are worried about burnout and exhaustion.
“I’m hearing it from our local fire chiefs … and chiefs are really struggling sending people out time and time and time again,” said Chief Deputy State Fire Marshal Travis Medema. “We haven’t seen a fire season like this to date that started this early and is going to have the longevity of this 2024 wildfire season … I think we’re going to be extremely challenged as we hit August.”
Firefighters are becoming fatigued after spending weeks on a fire and getting just a few days off before going out on a new assignment. Protecting their well-being is an important piece of protecting the lives of people in the fires’ paths.
“The fire weather and the fire behavior that we’re experiencing is producing conditions that are extremely difficult for our professional firefighters to be out in front of,” said Shane DeForest, Vale District manager with the Bureau of Land Management. “And we are concerned with their safety as well, and there are going to be times when we just plain are not going to be able to stand in front of the fire, make that stand. It’s going to put lives in jeopardy.”
A ‘Herculean’ effort
Wyden, among others, raised concerns about what the status will be in Oregon as fire season gets underway in other parts of the country.
“What I’m worried about now is we’re going to have fires all over the West simultaneously here,” Wyden said. “That’s going to be tough to deal with.”
Ryan Nehl, the agency administrator for the Battle Mountain Complex fires near Ukiah, said as fire season continues across the West, he worries about losing resources to wildfires in other areas.
“I think one of the limiting factors we’re seeing across the West with all these fires is the lack of incident management teams, those are really getting stretched,” he said. “And so with that lack of teams to come in and manage the complexity, we’re asking teams to go above and beyond their skill set and expertise, and so we’re making some scarce resource trade off discussions with these fires.”
Wyden didn’t mention specific efforts he is making to bring more resources to Oregon and help combat the wildfires, but he and Sen. Jeff Merkley did ask the federal departments of Agriculture and the Interior for assistance in late July, according to a joint press release.
“I’ve been following this constantly in D.C., constantly in Portland,” Wyden told everyone on the call. “We’re all over this. I just want you to know, we’re available to you. I know what you do … It is such a strength-draining kind of effort. There’s no other way to say it other than it’s Herculean. We’re so grateful to have you out there.”
