‘Scared the hell out of everybody’: La Pine residents seek fuels reduction grant after Darlene Fire

(Update: Adding video, comments from La Pine landowner, ODF)

LA PINE, Ore. (KTVZ) -- With the ongoing drought causing concerns of an early and extreme wildfire season, some homeowners, like Phil Johnson of La Pine, are taking advantage of assistance programs to help them create a safe zone around their homes.    

Phil Johnson’s 25-acre La Pine property was just a half-mile away from the flames of last summer’s Darlene Fire.

“We dodged a bullet on that one -- there's no question about it,” Johnson said Friday of the fire, which destroyed most everything in its path.

“Definitely, after the fire that we had last summer, it pretty much scared the hell out of everybody,” Johnson said. 

His property was spared damage, but he said there are five or six dense areas of brush and branches around it that need to be cleaned up, or they present huge wildfire fuel risks.

“You know, if it gets in here, it’s going to burn, there's no question about it,” Johnson said. “You can look around here, and I spent almost 20 years trying to get what’s cleaned up cleaned up. But if it gets in these trees, it's going to go through it -- nothing is going to stop it.”

Phil is applying for help on fuel reduction projects with the Oregon Department of Forestry’s Central Oregon District.

The intent of the projects is to reduce the potential of wildfire spreading to structures and to improve ingress/egress routes in the wildland-urban interface, specifically Juniper Canyon residents in Crook County, DRRH 1-5 & 9 in the La Pine area of Deschutes County, and Crooked River Ranch in Jefferson and Deschutes counties. 

Funding for the projects comes from the $5 million grant program established by Senate Bill 762, legislation which focuses on creating fire-adapted communities through fuels reduction of hazardous fuels on small forestlands.

“We have a really short time frame to put these operational dollars on the ground and get the projects completed,” ODF Central Oregon Public Information Officer Christie Shaw said.  

If accepted, ODF will design a minimum standard of what needs to be done and could have a firefighter offering technical assistance, or even bring in other groups to help out on the ground. 

“Some of the work in the in-kind can actually come from other agencies, potentially,” Shaw said.

NewsChannel 21 asked Johnson if he could clean up his property by himself.

“You can, but it takes years to do it, absolutely years to do it,” Johnson said. “But if you get 10 guys going in here, you could look at a week, and you’d have 10 acres cleaned out.”

Johnson’s kids have moved out of the house, and he’s still recovering from a broken leg.

“As neighbors we try to get together and help each other do stuff like that but it’s tough, especially as you get older. There's no question about it,” Johnson said. 

He's grateful the grant is an option, and believes it will inspire people to create safe zones around their homes.

“And most people that live here, put both feet in,” Johnson said. “You know, there's not just, ‘Oh, I do it a little bit, or when I want to.’ They’re on it all year round.”