Campfire bans confusing but necessary, officials say

Starting Tuesday, the Willamette National Forest and Lane County are lifting their ban on campfires.

They are the exception to the rule.

Campfire bans remain in place on the Deschutes and Ochoco national forests and BLM lands in Central Oregon, where much less rain fell of late.

Campfire bans remain in place on the Deschutes National Forest, BLM Lands, and the Ochoco National Forest. And the statewide state park ban on open flames will be extended for another week, officials said late Thursday.

Smoke rose over Culver again on Tuesday again – but this time it was simply an agricultural burn.

Residents in the area are still shaken up over the fire that destroyed two homes over the weekend and came close to taking many more.

“You can see it came up the grass right here, and we had the sprinklers on,” Bill Pollard said Tuesday.

Pollard and his wife, Jeanie Parks, were evacuated Saturday, the flames just feet away from their house.

“A state police trooper came by and said, ‘You will evacuate now!'” Parks recalled.

It was hard for them to leave their house, unsure of whether they would see it again.

“The whole time I was worrying, ‘Is the house going to be OK?'” Parks said. “Is the neighbor’s house going to be OK?”

In the end, they were lucky. The fire stopped right at their porch.

“One of the things that really saved us, aside from the farmer who helped putting this out, is the fact that we had gravel on this side right here,” Pollard said.

It could have been so much worse.

“We could have had nothing left but burned wood here,” Pollard said.

It all started from briquettes that were not disposed of properly in the campground. While campfires were banned in the area, the use of charcoal briquettes was not (until after the blaze).

“It’s just really scary and amazing to see how the fire could just rip through everything so quick,” Parks said.

Now, briquettes are banned in the Cove Palisades State Park, but the use of propane stoves is allowed, as it is at other parks around the state.

“We’re not planning on lifting the campfire ban on public lands, both BLM and forest service in Central Oregon,” said Jean Nelson-Dean with the U.S. Forest Service. “Really, we only received one-tenth of an inch of moisture on Sunday, which was basically gone in two hours.”

Nelson-Dean said September is usually the month with the highest fire activity in Central Oregon.

“We just can’t emphasize enough, you know, if a fire was to start here, we just don’t have the resources. It’s going to be a challenge,” Nelson-Dean said.

It’s a reminder to avoid human-caused fires at all cost, especially since Central Oregon is still in the heat of fire season. Experts ask that before you go camping, check with the landowner what bans are in place.

Meanwhile, Pollard and his wife escaped the worst by just a few feet.

“The whole area here, we were all just plain damn lucky,” Pollard said.