Officials: C.O. wildfire threat remains high

Fire crews with Redmond’s PatRick Corp. returned from mop-up work on the Deception Complex Fire near Oakridge Wednesday afternoon, working to clean up their rigs — but not clocking off for the season.

“We’re still picking up fires, working everybody we can,” said Operations Manager Justin Dice.

From a national perspective, Dice said it’s been an average summer for the company, but looking strictly at fires in the Pacific Northwest, one of the busiest for the business headquartered in Redmond.

“In Oregon and Washington, we’ve had a lot of fires, it’s been pretty busy,” Dice said. “Northern California also had a lot.”

PatRick crews are still busy near Mt. Hood and Burns and in other regions of Oregon, but have not worked in the High Desert in about a month.

Meanwhile, the Central Oregon Fire Management Service has reduced engine staffing to a minimum — six crews on standby — roughly half of what was available during peak periods of July and August.

It’s slower now, but Forest Service spokeswoman Kassidy Kern said danger lingers.

“We’re really not feeling like right this second we are winding down,” Kern said. “We’re still at high fire danger, in some cases extreme. What we watch now are human-caused fires, like the one we recently had on the Ochocos.”

Kern said fire officials have set a tentative date of Oct. 15th to reevaluate staffing levels and possibly wind down the season.

Kern wants to remind people campfires are still not allowed in the Deschutes National Forest, except for in designated campsites. Chain-saw activity is also still banned.