For firefighters, its hurry up and wait
Wildland crews encounter slow fire season
BY Larry Meyer
Argus Observer
LarryM@argusobserver.com
Saturday, August 22, 2009 11:23 PM PDT
VALE—If a person wants know how slow the fire season has been, just ask a Snake River Valley firefighter.
SRV firefighters may have been busy last year but have spent most of the 2009 summer season waiting for a fire call.
“This year there are seven (SRV) crews, 19 on each crew,” Vicki Ramirez, SRV resource assistant, said. “They are all from the Treasure Valley.”
Instead of rapid and multiple deployments across the region, only one SRV crew is fighting a fire — in California — now.
“Compared to last year, it is very slow,” Ramirez said.
Last year, SRV crews were busy from mid-June until the first of September, Ramirez said, most of that time in Northern California.
“They have all been out once (this year),” she said.
She said the crews are frustrated, and she receives plenty of phone calls from firefighters.
“That’s the way it is, just sit and wait,” Ramirez said.
At the Ontario Airport, where the United States Bureau of Land Management operates an air tanker facility to fight wildfires, activity has also been slow this summer.
Still, the air crews stay prepared for when the call comes, whether it be in Eastern Oregon, as far north as La Grande, in Idaho or in northern Nevada, Brian Rindlisbacher, BLM single engine air tanker manager at the Ontario airport, said.
“We do simulations,” he said, and the pilots get some flying time in to keep ready.
Jeff Galbraith, ground crew member for one of the aerial tankers, said the last time his plane was out on a fire was nearly two weeks ago.
“We’re a national resource,” he said.
He does not have a set location, he said. Galbraith, Rigby, Idaho, said along with loading fire retardant, he also washes the plane and performs minor maintenance.
BLM Public Information Officer Mark Wilkening conceded the 2009 fire season has been strange. He said lots of fires started, but none of the blazes consumed very much acreage.
“We haven’t placed any more fire restrictions,” Wilkening said, but the ones already announced are still in place. There was no fire activity in the Vale district since early August.
“It’s been a combination of things,” Wilkening said about the slow season.
With few resources being called out of the district to fight fire, more resources have been available for initial attack to keep any fires small, he said, emphasizing that crews and equipment stay ready all the time.
Statistics from the Oregon Department of Forestry on fires in state-owned lands and private forests, from Jan. 1 through Thursday, show a total of 664 fires that burned 5,878 acres, with an average of less than nine acres per fire. More than 400 of those were human-caused.
The 10-year average for fires on state and private land for the same time period is 765 fires, with approximately 24,256 acres burned.
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