‘It’s not over’: Governor Kotek gets agency briefing on wildfire season, urges caution over hot holiday weekend
PORTLAND, Ore. (KTVZ) -- Oregon Governor Tina Kotek visited the Northwest Interagency Coordination Center in Portland on Thursday for a briefing on the busy wildfire season, and afterward joined representatives from the Pacific Northwest Coordinating Group for an update on the still-high danger and urging caution this Labor Day weekend.
“I would like to thank the firefighters and support crews who have been working hard to protect what we hold dear during this unprecedented wildfire season. And it’s not over,” Kotek said. “To date, across Oregon, 1.5 million acres have burned. Our 10-year average for an entire fire season is 640,000 acres burned. All this before we enter a dangerous time of fire season, where east winds are typically upon us in August and September.
"Every single one of us, from the federal and state leaders beside me to fellow Oregonians across the state continue to have a role to play to prevent the very real threat of fire that still lies ahead.”
Nearly 5,000 firefighters are currently dispatched to large fires across the state, and at the peak of fire activity a few weeks ago, there were more than 10,000 people assigned to large fires in Oregon.
The governor has taken a series of executive actions since the start of the fire season, including declaring a Statewide Emergency, deploying the National Guard, requesting a secretarial disaster declaration for agricultural lands impacted by wildfire, requesting and receiving approval for seven Federal Emergency Management Agency grants, and issuing 13 separate conflagrations.
In the coming weeks, warm and dry east wind events are possible. These events increase the risk of wildfire, predominantly in the western part of the state. The NWCC's weather forecasts provide fire leadership information throughout the fire season about critical weather events, allowing state and federal leaders to strategically deploy resources and plan fire management activities while protecting the public and firefighters.
The NWCC provides logistical and intelligence support for all federal and cooperating state wildland fire suppression agencies, facilitates the movement of resources between agencies, and monitors weather and prescribed burning activity within the area.
The PNWCG is composed of USDA-Forest Service, USDI-Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Indian Affairs, National Park Service, Fish and Wildlife Service, Oregon Department of Forestry, Oregon State Fire Marshal, Washington State Fire Marshal, Washington Department of Natural Resources, Washington Association of Fire Chiefs, and the Oregon Fire Chiefs Association.
