Firefighters get ready for fire season

While Sisters area residents welcome balmy spring weather, Forest Service fire personnel know that it means wildfire season is not far behind.

Even before the start of last fall’s rains, Sisters Ranger District fire personnel already were looking ahead to the 2006 summer, planning how they could provide the best most efficient service in protecting the national forests from wildfire.

Fire Management Officer Mark Rapp works in fire management and fuels management in a big part of Central Oregon.

“About five years ago we went to an organization where we didn’t have fire management officers in every district of the Deschutes National Forest,” he said. “We went to a ‘zone concept’, so I have a zone of about 800,000 acres that includes the Sisters Ranger District and north end of the Bend-Fort Rock District. That reaches from the Warm Springs Reservation in the north to Wickiup Reservoir in the south and from the Cascades east to Highway 97.”

Rapp described Sisters area preparations.

“This season at Sisters we will have two engines and a five-person hand crew starting about the first to middle of June,” said Rapp, “Right now, we have personnel in other work that can respond to current wildfires.”

The district will continue to staff the Black Butte Lookout this summer, starting about the first of June.

“It’s still pretty snowed in up there,” Rapp said. “In addition, the Oregon Department of Forestry will have three to four engines locally that can be shared with the Forest Service.”

Other available resources include a 20-person “Hot Shot” national fire crew in Redmond and a similar crew in Prineville that can be mobilized anywhere in the nation, he explained. Other national resources include a 35-person smokejumper crew in Redmond that might be increased by five rookies this year, Rapp said.

In addition, there will 16 large air tankers nationally with one stationed in Redmond and one in Medford, he said. The Oregon Department of Forestry will contract for two additional air tankers, one at Redmond and one at Medford.

“We also have a heli-attack crew at Prineville and as we get into the late fire season, we may station a large helicopter somewhere in Central Oregon.” Rapp added. “Other large helicopters available to us will be at Oakridge, La Grande and in the State of Washington.”

In the Pacific Northwest, there is a lot of emphasis on contract crews, private crews that meet national standards of training and experience. There will be about 200 20-person crews, 250 engines, and 250 water tenders available nationally.

“These contractors are an important piece of the picture,” Rapp said.

Decisions on the placement of crews and equipment throughout the west are made by a group of fire personnel who gather data from fire teams, analyze the priorities at risk, and allocate the resources.

“In attacking wildfires, we follow the priorities of life, property, and resources being threatened, “ Rapp explained. “It’s like a big chess game, moving resources throughout the nation to where the highest priority of need is seen.”

Locally, the last few years has seen human-caused fires account for 60 percent of the wildfires and lightning only 40 percent, almost a reversal of the long-term experience. Historically, lightning has been the major cause of wildfires and abandoned campfires are a major source of human-caused fires.

“I call these stupidity fires because people are just not thinking about what they are facing in fire danger,” Rapp added.

“Ten years ago we had a pretty good work crew on the Sisters Ranger District that we called ‘the militia’,” Rapp said. “These were people doing other work in timber management. That work has dwindled, so we have fewer of those people available for fire suppression now.”

Available dollars and resources go through a cycle as the Forest Service and other agencies experience mild or severe fire seasons, he explained.

“Right now, we are in a ‘down cycle’ nationally after a mild fire season last year,” he said.

The Forest Service also is making strides locally in fuels reduction by controlled burning before severe weather starts.

“This helps keep wildfires on the ground and reduces the risk of them becoming catastrophic,” Rapp said.