Sean C. Morgan
Fire season is almost over, but officials aren’t quite ready to pull the plug.
The Industrial Fire Precaution Level has been reduced from three to one, and the fire board danger level is wavering between low and moderate.
“It’s close,” said Craig Pettinger, Sweet Home Unit forester with the Oregon Department of Forestry. “We’re not quite there yet. We’re kind of waiting for that next big system to come in.”
Fire officials were talking about it Monday, he said. “None of us have a good answer yet.”
They’re looking for 2 or 3 inches of rain before they’re comfortable calling an end to fire season, he said. “I think everybody’s kind of waiting for the next big storm to say ‘OK.’”
Pettinger said he isn’t seeing any big storms in the forecasts yet, and it looks like a short extension to summer with temperatures in the 80s over the coming weekend.
In the Sweet Home Unit, fire crews have been responding to nuisances, like illegal burns, but haven’t seen any big problems, he said.
The nearest major fire is the Deception Complex near Oakridge. It includes six fires started earlier this summer by lightning, and it had burned 6,033 acres as of Monday morning. It is 95 percent contained. Rain helped on the fire, but with the drying since then, smoke is reappearing within containment lines.
Crews are focused on mopping up and repairing roads and removing excess firefighting equipment.
Public use restrictions on National Forest lands have been lifted, but restrictions remain in effect on ODF-protected lands.