Sean C. Morgan
At the beginning of the summer, Craig Pettinger said the fire season was running about two weeks ahead of schedule.
The weather was hot, the vegetation dry and fire danger rising quickly.
Usually, firefighters are worried about dry east winds this time of the year, but constant early moisture has led to the early end of fire season – even before this last weekend’s deluge hit Sweet Home.
While he kept saying everything was running two weeks ahead this fire season, Pettinger, Sweet Home Unit Forester with the Oregon Department of Forestry, really didn’t think it would end two weeks early too.
“But that’s fine by me,” Pettinger said.
Regulated use ended on lands protected by the Sweet Home Unit on Sept. 24. Fire season ended on Sept. 25.
Pettinger expected area fire chiefs to end the burn ban on Monday. Anyone who plans to burn will need to call the burn line to make sure it’s a burn day, which is based on weather conditions.
Fire season ended on Oct. 15 last year, said Forest Protection Supervisor Chad Calderwood. The Sweet Home Unit had its largest fire of 2012, 16 acres, the day after.
This year’s fire season ended with about one-third of an acre burned.
The Sweet Home Unit’s goal was less than 10 acres of damage on every fire, with all fires out inside of 24 hours, Calderwood said. “We met that goal.”
“For the whole season (combined),” Pettinger added.
Calderwood complimented the general public for helping meet that goal. There weren’t as many open burns as usual, and many of the illegal burns were in barrels, although those also are not permitted.
The Sweet Home Unit responded to a total of 63 calls this season, Pettinger said. Three fires were caused by lightning. The largest fire was a human-caused fire off Cascadia Driver.
Fire season came and went quickly for Sweet Home, Calderwood said. “It came at one time, a month and a half. It didn’t last long.”
But it was intense for a short time, especially in July, he said. Fortunately, Sweet Home’s lightning storms came with “a lot of wet.”
The east winds always come, but there is nothing on the horizon yet, Pettinger said.
The Sweet Home Unit assisted on small fires in the area on the Willamette National Forest, Lewis Creek Park and rural fire districts.
It also sent firefighters to the Douglas Complex and additional fires in Southwest Oregon, the Dalles and Alaska.
Many of the unit’s crew members left for school at the end of last week, Pettinger said. A few remain on to clean up and prepare for winter.
“In the next few weeks, we’ll be assessing for fall slash burning,” Calderwood said.
Those will start once fire officials feel better about the east winds, Pettinger said.