Oregon Department of Forestry returns the favor, sends 26 firefighters to help battle North Carolina wildfires

SALEM, Ore. (KTVZ) – The Oregon Department of Forestry filled an order over the weekend and sent 26 firefighters and two agency representatives to North Carolina to assist in fighting numerous wildfires raging in the state.

Many of the firefighters arrived in the state on Sunday and are assigned to the Black Cove incident in western North Carolina, ODF officials said in a news release Monday, which continues in full below:

The two-week rotation with our North Carolina partners is our chance to return the favor. In 2024, North Carolina sent almost a whole incident management team, along with several overhead positions, in support of Oregon. The added capacity allowed some resource flexibility to ODF in a time when people and equipment were limited.

“Being able to have an additional incident management team made it so we did not have to make the hard choice of prioritizing one fire over another,” said Blake Ellis, Fire Operations Manager. “At the time, we had two fires in need of an IMT and only one ODF team available. We were able to fill both incidents’ needs due to the extra support from our North Carolina partners.”

The firefighters were sent to North Carolina under mutual assistance agreements between the two states. When wildfire activity is low in Oregon, firefighters can be spared to help in places experiencing high levels of wildfire.

Oregon can and has called on its out-of-state partners to send resources when wildfires here exceeded our local and state capacity, most recently last year when ODF received firefighters and equipment from about 21 states, provinces and territories.

“These agreements help bolster the complete and coordinated fire protection system and create a cache of reciprocal resources for all of us to call on when needed,” said Michael Curran, ODF’s Fire Protection Division Chief.

So why does Oregon send resources to help other states? Through these mutual assistance agreements with other states, including Alaska, Hawaii and NW Canadian territories, we can share resources with one another, creating a larger, faster comprehensive fire management system.   

“Know that we don’t share these resources without appropriate vetting. Before committing to any out-of-state deployment, we make sure that our own fire management system is still adequately staffed and ready to respond to fires here in Oregon. Serving Oregonians is our first and primary priority,” said Curran.