A warm early summer Monday had firefighters scrambling to put out several new fires around the region, from a small blaze in the woods east of Sunriver to two along railroad tracks in Bend and Redmond – sparked by a train’s locked brakes – and three fires in a short period in northwest Madras.
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Fire personnel spotted an illegal drone flying in the area of the Upper Applegate Fire Friday evening, Jackson County sheriff’s deputies said. Firefighting aircraft are unable to fly if a drone is in their operating area, so flights were grounded for the night.
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Fire season is starting to ramp up in Central Oregon, as two larger blazes in recent days prove. And as usual, the vast majority are human-caused, officials said Wednesday.
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In recent weeks, nearly 2,000 acres have been set on fire in Central Oregon forests, to reduce the risk of destructive wildfires. The pilot project to increase prescribed burns west of Bend – and coordinate smoke management – were the focus of a news conference Monday at the Northwest Interagency Coordination Center in Portland
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Bend-Fort Rock Ranger District firefighters have canceled Thursday’s planned 113-acre prescribed burn four miles southwest of Bend, saying changing weather conditions likely would have pushed the smoke into Central Oregon communities, rather than up and away from them.
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CORVALLIS, Ore. (KTVZ) — Oregon State University researchers have found that U.S. adults are fairly confident in linking wildfires and heat to climate change, but less confident when it comes to other extreme weather events like hurricanes, flooding or tornadoes. The recent study found that politics and personal experience played significant roles in people’s responses:
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All lands protected by the Oregon Department of Forestry’s Central Oregon District will enter fire season on Monday at 12:01 a.m., the agency announced Friday, while the Deschutes and Ochoco national forests and the BLM’s Prineville District have moved to moderate fire danger.
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PRINEVILLE, Ore. (KTVZ) — The Ochoco National Forest will host the Redmond Smokejumpers for their Rookie Training live fire exercise next Monday. Weather permitting, ignitions will take place 10 a.m. Monday. The training will take place on the Lookout Mountain Ranger District, 10 miles southeast of Post, near Drake Butte. There are no road or
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An escaped fire at a homeless camp by the southbound Bend Parkway brought out firefighters Wednesday afternoon after it was spotted by employees of a nearby business and tackled by workers and police with extinguishers. It put up tall, black smoke but thanks to their work did not damage the business or require closing the road.
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By CLAIRE RUSH Associated Press PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Pacific Power, part of PacifiCorp, said Monday it has agreed to a $178 million settlement with over 400 Oregon plaintiffs in the latest multimillion-dollar payout related to the deadly 2020 wildfires that ravaged the state. In other cases that have gone to trial over the past
Continue Reading Wind forecasts prompted Bend-Fort Rock Ranger District firefighters to cancel Friday’s planned ignitions on the 113-acre Big Eddy Prescribed Burn four miles west of Bend, south of the Cascade Lakes Welcome Station, adjacent to the east side of Forest Service 41 and west of the Deschutes River.
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MADRAS, Ore. (KTVZ) – Central Oregon’s outdoor debris burning season closes Saturday. That meant some with materials they wished to burn were doing so Friday – and in at least two locations along US Highway 97 in Jefferson County, gusty winds meant firefighters needed to help corral them. In both cases, people were “doing weed-burning
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BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) – Pacific Power will host a public forum in Bend next Tuesday to discuss its efforts to protect customers and communities against the threat of wildfire. During this conversation, company representatives will detail the important steps they take during wildfire season to keep customers and communities safe. This forum is an opportunity to learn
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MADRAS, Ore. (KTVZ) — Central Oregon Intergovernmental Council, in a collaborative effort with the Jefferson County Fire Chiefs, is offering private landowners the opportunity to apply for funding to minimize fire danger as outlined in the Jefferson County Community Wildfire Protection Plan. Eligible residents will be offered a flat-rate reimbursement of $600 for treating the
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BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) — Hundreds of acres were set on fire west of Bend Wednesday as the U.S. Forest Service offered reporters a first-hand look at this year’s stepped-up operation. Members of the media, along with public health officials, took part in a prescribed burn tour. “We’re trying to re-introduce fire so it can play its natural role in
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After a holiday break, the Deschutes National Forest resumed prescribed burning operations Wednesday in two locations totaling about 600 acres, four miles west of Bend and four miles northwest of Sisters along US Highway 20.
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PRINEVILLE, Ore. (KTVZ) — Annual campfire restrictions will go into effect on Saturday, June 1 on some Bureau of Land Management-administered lands in central Oregon. In particular, campfires will be prohibited along portions of the Crooked, Deschutes, John Day and White rivers, as well as on BLM-administered lands along Lake Billy Chinook and Lake Simtustus. “Our
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SALEM, Ore. (KTVZ) – The Oregon Department of Emergency Management is encouraging Oregonians to prepare for the upcoming wildfire season by staying informed, having an emergency plan and packing a go-kit. People can find an evacuation checklist, live wildfire and evacuation maps, and wildfire preparedness and prevention tips at wildfire.oregon.gov. “Oregon follows a three-level evacuation notification system structured around the
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WASHINGTON (KTVZ) – The U.S. House recently passed the Federal Disaster Tax Relief Act with broad bipartisan support. Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer (OR-05) voted in favor of the legislation, which would provide tax breaks to wildfire victims who were granted relief payments any time after December 2019. Specifically, if the bill passes the U.S. Senate, it
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BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) — The Central Oregon Fire Chiefs Association announced Thursday it is closing open debris burning for residential and private lands across the tri-county region in Deschutes, Crook and Jefferson counties on Friday of next week. Burning debris piles on many private lands will not be allowed after sunset on Friday, May 31st, as the area heads into the
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