So far, so good?
While other areas burn, locally fire season has fizzled
By Larry Meyer
Argus Observer
Tuesday, August 19, 2008 10:30 AM PDT
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| A Los Angeles County Fire Department helicopter makes a water drop as fire department hand crews look on in the Angeles National Forest near Green Valley, Calif. on Sunday. The fire is named the ‘South’ incident and has burned nearly 200 acres since it started around noon on Sunday. Locally, the fire season has been relatively uneventful. |
VALE — All was quiet Monday on the Vale District of the United States Bureau of Land Management front, with no fires or storms to report.
However, rain is expected, along with cooler temperatures, Jeree Mills, spokesperson for the Northwest Interagency Coordination Center in Boise, said.
The storm that rolled through the area Monday night was expected, Mills said. He said forecasters are not expecting any significant weather conditions through the end of the week.
Still, with August not over and September still to come, anything can happen, Mills said.
Monday, the largest fire in Oregon was a 6,000-plus acre blaze in the central part of the state, between John Day and Prineville.
Although there are no fires in southeast Oregon right now, there are still people from the local area in California helping with firefighting efforts there.
Vale BLM spokesman Mark Wilkening said three, 20-person Snake River Valley crews had been sent down to California early on, and Monday two crews were still deployed. There are still three people from the Vale BLM office in California, he said.
“We had two engines, with crews of three people down there,” Wilkening said during the height of the fires, and six overhead people, who help coordinate firefighting efforts.
There are seven SRV fire-fighting crews this year, he said, and two camp crews who work in fire camps, unless needed for firefighting.
BLM Vale District officials continue to impose public use restrictions to try and prevent wildfires from breaking out in Eastern Oregon. Wilkening said the additional restrictions were required as fuel moisture dropped with the hot weather.
“The light fuels that characterize rangeland in this area take very little time to dry out with wind and higher temperatures,” Tracy Skerjanec, Vale District assistant fire management officer, said in a BLM announcement.
Under the current restrictions, which went into effect in July, campfires are only allowed within metal fire rings at six developed campgrounds. They are Chukar Park, near Juntura in Malheur County and Westfall, Airport, Bob Creek and Spring recreation sites and Carters Landing in Baker County.
The exceptions are liquefied and bottle gas stoves and heaters, which must be used on bare ground.
In addition, when operating motorized vehicles on public lands, a person must carry a shovel at least 26 inches in length with at least an 8-inch blade and either a 1-gallon container of water or a fully-charged 2.5 pound fire extinguisher.
All motorcycles and all terrain vehicles must be equipped with a properly functioning U.S. Forest Service-approved spark arrest.
