Burning question: What are ‘1,000-hour’ fuels?

With all the recent fires sparking up across the High Desert, the true concern now is the fuels they are burning.

We have three different fuels here in Central Oregon, ranging from light grass all the way to big trees. Now, because it’s been so hot and dry for such a long time, the “1,000-hour fuels” are the biggest concern.

“We are unseasonably high and dry. We are in hotter temperatures. We are in drier conditions,” Kassidy Kern with the Deschutes National Forrest said Monday.

We’ve all felt the heat the past couple weeks, and with no real relief in sight, this fire season will continue to be a busy one.

“We are looking at both how the fuels are reacting right now but also the long-term trends and we are trending to that extreme level,” Kern said.

But it’s not just the lightning the firefighters are concerned with.

“To have fire we need oxygen or wind, heat — lightning, or a match. And finally we need fuel, and fuel comes in different sizes,” said Geogg Babb, a fire ecologist.

The larger forest “fuel” on the High Desert is resilient to even the strongest downpour.

“We can have a significant rainfall, thunderstorm downpour — that’s not really going to make a dent in the fuel” moisture level, Babb said.

There are three different types of potential wildfire fuel: one-hour, 100-hour and 1,000-hour. In basic terms, they’re determined by size and how much moisture would be needed to make that fuel essentially fire-proof.

In the case of a 1,000-hour fuel, like felled trees, they are a lot heavier, with a lot more volume to the amount of surface area.

But because of the size, they are harder to ignite – unlike a one- or 100-hour fuel.

Experts also note that lightning is not the only concern, but people who make silly mistakes when putting out a campfire. Just remember: If it’s too hot to touch, it’s too hot to leave.