Sean C. Morgan
Local wildland fire suppression officials are taking advantage of May, Oregon Wildfire Awareness Month, to remind Sweet Home-area residents of the importance of preventing human-caused fires.
The Oregon Department of Forestry and Keep Oregon Green, in particular, are spreading the word on ways to reduce the vulnerability of homes in the event a wildfire encroaches.
Typically, Wildfire Awareness is a week-long effort, but this year fire officials want to focus heavily on prevention before fire season starts around the beginning of July, said Neil Miller, forest protection supervisor with the Oregon Department of Forestry Sweet Home Unit.
The theme is “Wildfire knows no season,” Miller said. “We began with this because of the fires we saw early in January.”
East winds dried out the forests, which were already fairly dry from a mild winter.
Some 330 acres burned in several fires that month, Miller said. According to figures provided by State Farm Insurance, last year, Oregon had 2,848 fires, fourth in the nation behind California (9,907), North Carolina (3,514) and Georgia (2,942). Washington was seventh with 1,527. Oregon’s largest wildfire was a major fire complex in Douglas County. The Sweet Home area had fewer fires than average in 2013.
Early this year, fire officials were worried about drought, Miller said, but that ended in February as rainfall soared. The northern part of the Cascades are at 97 percent normal water levels. Snow packs have grown closer to normal as well, but heavy vegetation poses a problem.
“I think we have recovered quite a bit from January,” Miller said. “Now we’ve got a huge fuel bed of grass. Once it dries out, we’ll have a significant chance for bigger fires.”
With the mild winter, higher elevations may see fires as a smaller snowpack allows fine fuels to grow, said Unit Forester Craig Pettinger.
The Sweet Home area has already experienced a small wildfire this spring.
On April 13, a fire burned near the top of Scott Mountain near radio repeaters and equipment.
It was located inside locked gates downhill from the equipment, Pettinger said. “”There’s been an increase in illegal activity up there, and it’s being watched closely.”
The fire burned slash piles that would have been burned anyway in the fall, Pettinger said, so it caused no monetary losses outside of the time and equipment used to extinguish it. The Sweet Home Unit received assistance from Brownsville and Sweet Home fire departments.
During Wildfire Awareness Month, fire officials urge the public to be mindful of the growing potential for wildfires and to follow basic fire safety rules and precautions.
The heaviest activity is in the summer, but fires occur in all seasons of the year, including spring. At stake are lives, personal property and forests. In 2013, three firefighters died battling wildfires in Oregon. Timber losses totaled $370 million, and fire decimated key fish and wildlife habitats, homes and outbuildings.
“Simple prevention strategies will make the strongest impact in keeping your home, family and community safe,” said Kristin Babbs, president of the Keep
Oregon Green Association.
Jim Walker, Oregon state fire marshal, said now is the time for people to prepare their home and the area around their home before wildfire season begins.
“Thousands of Oregonians’ lives and homes can be put at risk when a wildfire strikes,” he said.
“Creating defensible space around your home is the single most important thing you can do to help save your home from wildfire,” Walker said. “The more you can do to make your home defensible, the easier it is for firefighters to protect it.”
Defensible space means maintaining the landscape around the home to reduce fire danger and providing safe access for firefighters so they can protect it.
In creating defensible space, start with the home and work your way out.
Check the roof and rain gutters. The roof should be fire-resistant – metal, tile or asphalt shingles are ideal. A hot ember will likely burn itself out if it lands on a fire-resistant roof. Needles and leaves should be cleared off the roof and out of gutters.
Homes and attachments are vulnerable out to about 5 feet if organic mulch, juniper bushes or other flammable plants are located in the area. A wind-cast ember or creeping ground fire could ignite fuels in this zone and carry flames to the structure.
Plants within 30 to 100 feet of a house should be low-growing and well-irrigated. Leave 30 feet between clusters of two or three trees and 20 feet between individual trees. Encourage a mixture of coniferous and deciduous trees. Create fuel breaks, such as driveways, gravel walkways and lawns. Prune trees 6 to 10 feet above ground.
Spacing and pruning trees this way inhibits wildfires climbing into the crowns and carrying flames from tree to tree and eventually the house. A fuel break can stop the advance of a fire by starving it of flammable vegetation.
The zone 100 to 200 feet from a home requires less attention, but still should serve as an outer buffer to wildfires. Trees may need to be thinned, though less intensively than the closer zone. Remove smaller conifers that are growing between taller trees. Remove heavy accumulations of woody debris, and reduce the density of tall trees so canopies do not touch.
Consider firefighters responding to your property. Make sure your driveway will allow them to engage the fire safely. Prune trees along the driveway and trim back shrubs so a fire engine can enter and exit without running a gauntlet of flames.
More tips on creating defensible space may be found at firewise.org.
During May, watch for additional wildfire prevention tips on forest recreation and activities around the home.
The burn ban will typically begin around June 15, Miller said. Fire season will begin around July 4, with regulated use in recreation areas about a week later.
Burning is permitted right now, but before burning, Miller asks that people check the burn line first, (541) 451-1904, to make sure it’s a burn day.