August 16, 2022 3:20 a.m.
Staff with the Oregon Department of Forestry said crews are dousing fires quickly, thanks to having more people and equipment.
An ODF release said as of Monday, firefighters have suppressed 418 fires, and held them to 582 acres total. The ten-year average for this point in fire season is 590 fires and 56,121 acres burned.
ODF’s Tim Holschbach, Deputy Chief of Policy and Planning for the Fire Protection Division said, “Frankly, our people have been kicking butt”. Holschbach said, “Although there is a possibility for holdover fires from recent lightning to add fires to the map, ODF’s firefighters have been doing a remarkable job keeping them small”.
The release said more people have been the key to knocking out fires on lands the department is responsible for protecting.
Holschbach said investments into the wildfire protection system from Senate Bill 762 allowed the agency to not only hire additional season firefighters to increase response, but also additional full-time positions in to increase capacity year-round. Holschbach said, “I can’t say how many millions of dollars in firefighting costs we have saved by being able to quickly suppress these fires – keeping them small, off the landscape and out of our communities”.
The release said a big part of putting out wildfires is detecting them early and a key part of that effort is the multi-mission aircraft that is in its third season of operation. It was made possible through an investment from the Oregon Forest Protection Fund – which consists of landowner dollars paid for fire protection each year.
The MMA has state of the art thermal cameras that overlay information through an augment reality mapping system, according to Jamie Knight, ODF State Aviation Operations Specialist. Knight said “This ‘eyes in the skies’ asset can then feed that information into a firefighting data base used state-wide called the State of Oregon Fire Situation Analyst system. Our dispatch centers around the state can see those maps and quickly send the best resources to attack the fire”.
Resources can include ground-based firefighters and equipment, or one or more of the 27 aircraft on exclusive use contracts with the state. The mix of aircraft includes eight tankers, five fixed wing detection/aerial supervision aircraft, along with 14 helicopters.
For more information on ODF’s firefighting efforts, go to: https://www.oregon.gov/odf/fire/pages/firestats.aspx