Busy NW fire season ending, but danger lingers

It is a fire season for the record books across the Pacific Northwest. In Oregon, there were 2,273 fires that burned 631,547 acres.

“I would say this is a historic fire season in the state of Oregon with the numbers of acres burned this season,,” Doug Johnson, deputy fire staff with the Central Oregon Fire Management Service, said Thursday.

The largest fire statewide was the Canyon Creek fire south of John Day, where 43 homes were destroyed by the flames.

While large wildfires raged across the state, Central Oregon was mostly fortunate this year, though fires did destroy homes near Culver and Warm Springs.

“Here in Central Oregon, the lightning seemed to go around us, which is usually our biggest start for fires,” Johnson said.

In 2014, there were 435 fires in Central Oregon. This year, that number was down to 318, and most of them were small.

In 2014, 123,411 acres were burned compared to 47,709 this year.

All these fires don’t come cheap. In Oregon and Washington, more than $536 million has been spent this year on firefighting efforts.

Fewer fires and fewer acres burned on the High Desert begs the question: What makes this fire season so unique?

There were fears of a savage season in the region. “We were seeing fire behavior in April that we normally see in June or July,” Johnson said.

Although restrictions are beginning to ease, the fire danger is not over, even in mid-October, due to the dry fuel moisture.

“Until we get some significant moisture here in Central Oregon, we will continue to have a fire risk and danger,” Johnson said.

Forest Service officials said they are praying for snow this winter.

“We could experience some pretty severe fire behavior (next year) if we don’t have any recovery from snowpack and moisture this spring,” Johnson said.