Sean C. Morgan
Of The New Era
Fire Season officially ended on Oct. 7 in the Oregon Department of Forestry Sweet Home Unit.
The burn ban was lifted on Oct. 3.
“We’re still not allowing commercial slash burning,” Unit Forester Kevin Crowell said. “We just don’t have that weather condition yet.”
The area still has not seen its usual offshore, east wind weather yet, Crowell said, and dry days are still drying fuels out quickly.
After rains last week, Sweet Home had a dry day on Oct. 6, and that dried the already cured grasses out.
Crowell urges residents to keep water and hand tools nearby when burning debris.
“We can still have escaped fires,” Crowell said. “It’s not necessarily today they have the problems. It’s tomorrow when they go to work.”
Burn piles and slash can hold heat, and a little wind can blow sparks into the cured grasses, Crowell said.
Grasses take about one hour to completely saturate with rainwater, Crowell said, but they only take an hour to dry out.
Sweet Home has seen some offshore weather patterns, but it has not seen the east wind that normally comes with them.
Off-shore weather patterns originate over land instead of bringing moisture in off the ocean, Crowell said.
The ODF is predicting offshore activity this week with possible east wind, Crowell said, but the forecast doesn’t predict the duration or magnitude of the weather pattern.
The offshore weather will mean nicer days for the Sweet Home area, Crowell said.
This fire season, “we had nothing major happen,” Crowell said. Overall, fire activity was lower than usual in Oregon, burning fewer acres than usual.
Sweet Home Unit had an average year in terms of the number of fires and acres burned, Crowell said. Sweet Home Unit responded to 76 fire calls. Of those, 21 were fires where the ODF took control. Sweet Home unit provided assistance to local fire districts on three of the fires. Fifty-two were illegal burns or smoke chases.
A smoke chase is a report of a fire that turns out to be a dust cloud or a situation where nothing is found, Crowell said.
Fire season ended about a week earlier than last year, Crowell said.
Crowell wants to remind the public that commercial slash burning, when it is allowed again, will still require a permit through Sweet Home Unit.
With the approaching winter, Sweet Home Unit is returning its attention to its National Fire Plan prevention efforts.
For more information on fires, call 367-6108.