Sean C. Morgan
A mild fire season officially ended Oct. 5 in Sweet Home and the greater South Cascade Forest Protection District.
The Fire Defense Board lifted the burn ban the day before. Regulated use ended with the end of fire season.
“Fire season is terminated in the South Cascade District, which includes the Sweet Home Unit,” said Neil Miller, forest protection supervisor at the Sweet Home Unit. “With that said, we have not released the burning of industrial slash from logging operations. We are looking for a couple more inches of rain. Sounds like that’s coming (this) week.”
Slash may be released for burning this week, he said.
Although the burn ban has been lifted, people are still required to call the burn message line at (541) 451-1904 to see if it’s an approved burn day. For back yard burns, select option one.
Remember that weather conditions can change, so please monitor any burning you do not matter what time of year it is,” Miller said to remind people that wildfire knows no season.
This year’s fire season was “pretty slow or more of an average compared to the last three,” Miller said. The Sweet Home Unit has received 62 calls since the beginning of the fiscal year on July 1. Of those, 12 were considered “stat fires,” calls in which fire crews take action to extinguish a fire. They burned 2.92 acres. That’s about half of the activity of last year.
The largest was the Pleasant Valley power line fire in a grass field. The fire burned 1.25 acres. Another was a 1-acre fire in Lacomb caused by a lawnmower.
The Sweet Home Unit had 11 calls to assist the U.S. Forest Service and Sweet Home Fire and Ambulance District. They included a fire near Sheep Creek just before the Highway 20 Sheep Creek Bridge closed in the beginning of August. It also included a couple of calls in the Forest Service campgrounds along Highway 20. Those fires ranged from campfire size to a 10th of an acre.
The Sweet Home Unit assisted with three of six arson fires in the Rock Hill area outside of Lebanon, Miller said. The unit also provided equipment that helped police identify and arrest a suspect in the arsons.
The Sweet Home Unit responded to 39 other calls, which included putting out fires in debris piles and abandoned campfires, Miller said. The unit issued 14 warnings, mostly for regulated use violations, like mowing.
The Sweet Home area had a couple of fires earlier this year, with the statistics counted as part of the 2015-16 fiscal year, including more than six acres that burned at the intersection of Highway 20 and Soda Fork Road.
The Sweet Home Unit sent few firefighters off district early this year, Miller said. Fire activity was lower than last year across the state. Larger fires were in the Veneta and Toledo areas.
“I think the state was looking for a little bit of a break,” Miller said. Early moisture and cool weather in July helped.
The season turned out mild, especially compared to last year when the local Fire School was unable to provide live fire exercises for trainees because fire danger was so high in June.
The Sweet Home area experienced higher temperatures earlier, in April and May, Miller said. The weather was a roller coaster this season. A few days reached 100 degrees.
The fire season did have a few wind events, with power lines going down, he said.
“We never really had a lightning event until the last day of fire season,” Miller said. “It came in wet.”