Sean C. Morgan
Of The New Era
A half inch of rain last week and rain again over the weekend do not mean that the summer fire danger has abated , local officials say.
“It’s calmed things down,” said Jim Basting, forest protection supervisor with the Oregon Department of Forestry Sweet Home Unit. It reduced the industrial fire precaution level to two from three, but regulated use remains in effect on all ODF lands in the area along with the burn ban.
Lightning led the rain last week on a couple of warm, muggy days, and firefighters did chase lightning strikes to make sure they didn’t flare up.
“We still haven’t had any fires yet,” Basting said on Friday. Firefighters detected a half dozen lightning strikes near Harter Mountain, northwest of Moose Creek near Soda Creek.
They also detected three strikes between the Upper Calapooia and Wiley Creek, one in the Berlin area and a few around Mt. Tom.
Firefighters were busy at the end of the week patrolling those areas, on the road, in the air and from the Green Peter Lookout station.
“It is dry underneath all the canopy, and people shouldn’t be deceived by the rain,” Basting said. The rain got the fine fuels wet, but the heavier fuels remained dry. By the end of the week, the warm weather had dried out the fine fuels as well.
Eighty-degree days don’t take long to dry those fuels out, Basting said.
While firefighters keep watch over the Sweet Home area, six members of the local team were away on other fires at the end of the week, Basting said. Two were working with the Forest Service south of Oakridge, and four were working on the Simpson Fire near Sisters.