Sean C. Morgan
Of The New Era
Fall has started, and it’s cold out, but fire danger remains.
“I don’t want to give anybody any false readings,” said Forest Protection Supervisor Jim Basting of the Oregon Department of Forestry Sweet Home Unit. “We’re in a transition from hot and dry to cold and dry. Grass will burn easily. There’s nothing that’s all that wet.
“Fire danger can exist in cool weather, especially with the wind.”
Oct. 15 is usually when the burn season starts, Basting said, but at this point, ODF weather reports are only forecasting partly cloudy weather and bursts of rain.
Fire officials are waiting for the first huge fall rainstorm before lifting the burn ban, he said. At this time, the ODF has been issuing warnings to people illegally burning.
Regulated use remains in effect, limiting campfires to rings along the Quartzville Corridor and area parks, he said. The Industrial Precaution is at level one, allowing logging but requiring a fire watch for an hour afterward and an available fire engine.
The fire season has been comparatively quiet this year after last year’s 1,000-acre fire, a 20-year event, in the Rocky Top area around Green Peter Reservoir, Basting said. This year has been more normal, with 106 runs since July 1.
Officials have dealt with a lot of abandoned campfires and illegal burns, Basting said, but so far, they have found only 20 fires, the largest being a 10-acre fire off Pleasant Valley Road earlier this month.
Most of the fires have been less than a half-acre, he said.
Across the area, things have stayed quiet, Basting said.
The Sweet Home Unit’s crew of firefighters is diminishing as some of its members head off for school, he said.