Governor Kotek tours Larch Creek Fire in Wasco County after holding briefing on ‘aggressive’ early fire season

DUFUR, Ore. (KGW/KTVZ) — Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek and her wife, Aimee Kotek Wilson, arrived in Tygh Valley on Sunday. The two women stood at a viewpoint on the side of the road, surveying the damage from the Larch Creek Fire, KGW reported. 

"You just have no sense until you’re out here and seeing it," Kotek said. "For me, this is my first big fire season as governor and so I need to be out here."

The Larch Creek Fire burned has over 18,000 acres in Wasco County. As of Sunday, it was 81% contained. 

"Incredible amount of work, hundreds of folks out here saving homes," the governor said. "These communities are really lucky to be here right now."

While the Larch Creek Fire is under control, many other fires are burning across the state. Kotek said at least three are labeled "mega fires," as they've burned more than 100,000 acres. The Lone Rock Fire, the Cow Valley Fire and the Falls Fire all fit in that category. Another fire, the Durkee Fire in Baker County, joined the growing list over the weekend. Kotek invoked the Conflagration Act on Saturday so the state fire marshal could bring in more resources to help. 

"Right now, we are focusing on keeping people safe, protecting communities, protecting lives and livestock lives," the governor said. "It will be costly but were doing everything we can right now to protect people and we'll worry about the bill later."

The governor added that there will need to be a long-term discussion in Salem about how to fund resources for fire seasons as intense as this one. 

"We're in a new time, and we’ve got a long fight ahead of us this summer," said Ben Duda, the Oregon Department of Forestry Central Oregon District operations support supervisor.

Duda has worked in firefighting for about 30 years. The last time he remembers having a fire season this early was the mid-'90s. He said that season lasted through September. One of his concerns heading into two more months of firefighting is allowing crews to get proper rest. 

"We try to cycle them out, stagger some of those breaks," Duda said, referring to the state and contracted crews. 

"The poor landowners, the local fire departments a lot of times they don’t have luxury of the day off, so they’re in this fight every day, and they’re looking at some long weeks ahead."

Crews from around the nation are in Oregon to fight the larger fires. The governor said she'll consider calling in international support.

"It’s rare, but we do have firefighting crews who come in from other countries. I hope we don’t get there, but we are making those asks because we have a serious situation," Kotek said.

At a virtual press briefing Friday on the wildfire situation, Kotek said, “To be very honest, our wildfire season is off to a very aggressive start. Thousands of lightning strikes earlier this week resulted in over 100 new fires detected so far.”

While the governor has called in resources from other states and activated the Oregon National Guard to help in the fight, numerous large fires across the state are currently burning. That includes the Falls Fire, which is one of several over 100,000 acres in size.

ELATED: The latest update on wildfires burning in Oregon

“The fires we have now may just be the beginning for what we are going to be dealing with into next week,” said Kyle Williams with the Oregon Department of Forestry. 

The Oregon Department of Forestry warned that more lightning strikes this coming weekend could make the situation worse, and the agency is calling on the public to be extra vigilant. 

“So really doubling down on asking the public to for help keeping human-caused fires off the map," Williams urged. "We have our hands full already. With more lightning coming, we can address that, as long as our resources aren’t busy dealing with other human-caused fires.” 

Kotek said there have been successes so far in containing the Larch Creek Fire in Wasco County, as well as the Cow Valley Fire in Eastern Oregon. 

However, Kotek warned Oregonians to expect a long wildfire season. 

“I can’t emphasize enough: This is a dynamic and fast-moving situation for our state, and we will continue to use every resource, every personnel we can get our hands on to fight these fires,” she said.