Wildfires burn across Oregon and Washington

Wildfires spreading throughout the state have caused multiple road closures and prompted evacuations. The Durkee Fire, which is burning in Malheur and Baker counties, is so hot it created its own weather. Record dry conditions combined with lightning strikes and human activity have set off over 60 fires across Oregon and Washington already this season. The U.S. Forest Service is bringing in resources from across the country to aid in fighting these blazes. Mariana Ruiz Temple, Oregon’s State Fire Marshal, joins us to share more. We’ll also hear from Jacque Buchanan, U.S. Forest Service regional forester for the Pacific Northwest.

The following transcript was created by a computer and edited by a volunteer:

Dave Miller: This is Think Out Loud on OPB. I’m Dave Miller. Oregon is in the unenviable position of being the country’s wildfire epicenter right now. We have the most active fires, the most acreage burned by far at 900,000 acres, and the largest single fire ‒ that is the Durkee Fire ‒ in Baker County, which has burned nearly 270,000 acres alone. Jacque Buchanan is the U.S. Forest Service’s regional forester for the Pacific Northwest. Mariana Ruiz Temple is Oregon’s State Fire Marshal. They both join me now. It’s good to have both of you on the show for some updates.

Mariana Ruiz Temple: Thank you for having us.

Jacque Buchanan: We’re happy ‒ this is Jacque Buchanan ‒ to be here with you today.

Miller: So, Jacque first. So many of the issues that we’ve talked about in recent years ‒ historical fire suppression, built up fuel, long term drought, beetles or other bugs, climate change ‒ these all affect the entire Western U.S. to one extent or another. Why is it that Oregon’s fires so far in this fire season seem so much worse than the rest of the country? I mean, seven times more acreage burned than the next highest state.

Buchanan: Yeah. Great question. But the answer, there’s not an easy answer. I think the years lining up, we’re in this transition from El Nino to La Nina. And so we’ve been watching the weather predictions for months now, trying to figure out which way it was gonna go. It went the worst way. We got extreme heat early. I mean normally, historically, people would say fire season starts in the Pacific Northwest the end of July. We had 100 degrees on July 4th. So it came early, it came fast and it has stayed.

I mean, we have parts of this ‒ of Oregon in particular ‒ but both Oregon and Washington that haven’t seen significant rain or rain that you could actually measure for 75 days. On an average, I think we’re close to 45 days across the area. And so it’s hot, it is dry. We are having these events come in ‒ lightning, wind ‒ and then we have the human factor. We have a lot of people out on the landscape. So all those factors aligning with this environmental condition and the elements you spoke to, kind of the history of us being behind the curve on removing fuel. Although our agencies are all putting extreme effort into changing that right now, all of it aligns for almost the perfect storm and I think that’s what we’re seeing right now.

Miller: Mariana, can you give us a sense for your office’s role in all of this?

There are a couple different departments at the state level that are involved when there are massive conflagrations all over the state. There’s also, obviously, federal agencies as well, Jacque’s with us as well. But what does the Oregon State Fire Marshal’s office do in seasons like this?

Ruiz Temple: Yeah, thank you for the question. The Department of State Fire Marshal has responsibility for protection of Oregon communities and structures. The Department of State Fire Marshal serves alongside our wild land partners on the Pacific Northwest coordinating group. We serve on the multi-agency coordination group for this geographic area, and our role is to work with our wild land partners alongside of their work when wildfires impact communities, when wildfires impact what we call the wildland urban interface (WUI).

And what you see come across, especially on these megafires where there are many jurisdictions, there could be BLM lands, there could be tribal lands, there could be U.S. Forest Service lands and there could be communities. And what we do is we come together in Oregon under one plan, one team and one mission. And that’s to combat the wildfire in front of us. And what our resources do is really focus on structural protection. So you’ll see the Oregon Fire Service from around the state come in and really take that portion of the wildfire ‒ the wildfire impacting our communities ‒ and we bring in the resources under the Oregon Fire Mutual Aid system, which is made up of our 305 fire districts, 13,000 firefighters in Oregon. And that’s how we meet our mandate in protecting our communities. And right now, to date, we’ve had eight conflagrations and that’s really telling as that’s the most we’ve had to date. That’s a record for Oregon, and I think that speaks to what Jacque just talked about with the conditions on the ground.

Miller:. Meaning you’ve never had that many this early in the season?

Ruiz Temple: Correct. Yeah, this is an early season. And I think we talked about weather, we talked about human impacts. We talked about the fuel conditions. All of that was the perfect bull’s eye for what we’re seeing. We’re fighting fire like it’s August 25th, not July 25th. And that’s concerning for the amount of fires that we have on the landscape and the longevity of our firefighting system throughout the fire season and trying to make sure that we’re getting our folks to a place that they’re going to be ready to make it through the long haul. And our goal is to try to get off of these megafires and large fires so that we can reset and be ready when they’re needed on new fires.

Miller: I want to turn to those staffing questions in just a bit. But Jacque, to go back to you, I mentioned at the beginning the Durkee Fire burning near the Oregon-Idaho border in Baker County, the largest active blaze in the U.S. Can you give us the latest on that?

Buchanan: I can give you some stats. It’s actually a BLM Fire ‒ Bureau of Land Management ‒ down that corridor, but I met with the state director yesterday. Actually, we had a meeting, Barry and I had a meeting. It is just another example of all those conditions and being in alignment with really hot, really dry. And then you have wind events or an additional lightning and it just picks up this almost feeling like, can you get in front of it? How can you get in front of it? They’re putting in a lot of effort. That is the focus of attention, although they’ve got other fires they’re dealing with at the same time. They’re doing everything they can to kind of manage that within a certain boundary, working off of the landscape that they have, roads and other features.

But it’s serious and with all of these fires, you kind of have moments of opportunities where if the conditions moderate a little bit, the temperatures drop, the winds don’t show up for a while, you can make some ground up and you can sometimes pull ahead of it. And I think that’s what every one of us is doing and we’re working collectively to look for every opportunity we have to gain some ground, because then you’re right back off to the races again when the next event lines up.

I mean, even the last 48 hours we had this wind move across and I was getting calls the other night of, it’s getting pretty scary out here. We’ve got 40 mile an hour winds and the fires, we’re trying to hold it. And so we’re getting those calls from our folks, from our cooperators and none of us are getting much sleep right now because it’s a 24/7 response and it’s all hands on deck. We’ve got, right now, totally in this region on all the fires across the landscape on over 1.1 million acres burning and 10,290 bodies working those fires as of this morning. We are far and above beyond what any other location this country has going on right now.

Miller: You say 1.1, so that includes Washington as well?

Buchanan: Yes, Washington and Oregon, the two states that make up the Pacific Northwest.

Miller: Mariana, my understanding is that you’re in Monument right now in central Oregon, east central Oregon, helping to monitor the Boneyard Fire. What can you tell us about what’s happening there and the particular risks to structures or communities?

Ruiz Temple: Yeah. The amount of fire geographically in this area is very, very concerning and most impactful to our local landowners and our ranchers and the impact that these fires are having not only to their landscape but their livestock is just devastating. And I know we’re seeing that on the Durkee Fire and the Cow Fire in the falls. And so what I would say, I am here in Monument for the day. I visited the Lone Rock Fire earlier today and kind of just getting a sense of how all of these fires, the Battle Mountain Complex, the Boneyard, the Courtrock, and just starting to really work with the teams in this region to build a plan of how we’re going to infuse more firefighters and really attack this, as the structural threat does increase to the east and to the south. We feel good about the Lone Rock fire in terms of structural protection. We do expect our wild land partners will remain. But today is kind of a day of transition and how we’re going to transition and refocus the structural resources to where they’re most needed.

We’ve had amazing saves. Sometimes we focus on loss and I’ve experienced loss through wildfire and I know that’s difficult. But I also want to talk about the incredible saves that our wildland and structural partners have done on these fires that have been very voracious, moving very quickly, as she indicated with the wind. And I think our focus over the next few days will be how do we create more infrastructure to support these fires? What we know is there’s a lot of fires burning elsewhere in Oregon. And if we can come up with a plan to gain containment, we have the ability to now surge capacity to the other fires that are burning in the state of Oregon. But I just want to mention to our landowners and our ranchers and our farmers that have all been an integral part of fighting this fire and really trying to help in terms of the impacts of their livestock.

Miller: Jacque, I mean that is in a sense, that is the volunteer or community pitching in here, but in terms of the official response, do you have the human and logistical resources you need?

Buchanan: That’s a great question and I will tell you right now nationally, I mean, for us to have 10,290 firefighters committed in this region between the two states and we have 21 what we call incident management teams within those two states. I have 35 years in my career and I’ve never had that level of response needed in this tight of a time period. And so do we have all the resources, are we getting everything that’s available? So I think there’s two questions here. We are getting a tremendous amount of support. Everyone is pouring everything we have into this response. State partners, the states are putting everybody in there. We’re talking about the Army National Guard, we’re talking about every federal resource that is available, is coming here. And I’ll tell you, it still feels like it’s not enough. But again, this is unprecedented times. I mean, for this level of activity within, what still is a big area, but you’re talking two states and mostly for the large part, we’re talking Oregon. It is not a normal time. And we’ve seen this periodically in the past, but even talking to folks who’ve been in this area for a long time, this is unprecedented with the level and the width and the breadth and the extent of what’s happening.

Miller: Mariana, before we say goodbye, what is your message for Oregonians in terms of preparedness and readiness?

Ruiz Temple: Yeah, I think my message to all Oregonians is we all are part of the response system and doing what we can do to reduce new fire ‒ new fire starts ‒ is what I would ask all Oregonians and all visitors, that we don’t expect that this fire season is going to get better. It’ll just continue and we don’t want to have contributors to that. And so if you can be aware of your fire restrictions where you recreate, be aware of your mechanized equipment when you’re using it. And please, please, please help firefighters by creating that defensible space in the off season, and being aware of the conditions on the ground. The conditions are at the highest record of being able to ignite. And so if you can do everything you can to help protect Oregon in your capacity, that will help firefighters in their capacity. Thank you.

Miller: Mariana and Jacque, thanks very much.

Buchanan: Thank you.

Ruiz Temple: Thank you.

Miller: Mariana Ruiz Temple is Oregon’s State Fire Marshal. Jacque Buchanan is the U.S. Forest Service’s regional forester for the Pacific Northwest.

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