Long drought raises fire worries
PORTLAND – Even with a normal amount of spring rain, severe drought conditions will extend across most of the Northwest, creating a lively wildfire season on both sides of the Cascades, according to a preliminary report prepared by the federal Northwest Interagency Coordination Center.
Dead standing timber and logs typically take months to dry out and require the same amount of time to reclaim moisture, said Mike Fitzpatrick, the center’s predictive services coordinator in Portland.
“When we get rain, it certainly will help,” Fitzpatrick said. “But when we get extended drying like we’ve had, they tend to get dry through and through. It takes a considerable amount of time for them to moisten up.”
The 2004 season was a calm one, largely because lightning strikes were followed by rain and cool weather. While no one knows whether this summer’s thunderstorms will be mostly wet or dry, an analysis of climate data since 1970 indicates a moderate to high probability of one to three episodes of lightning with no rain, the coordination center said.
Nationally, the fire danger looks greatest in Oregon, Washington, northern Idaho and western Montana because of extremely low snowpacks in the region, said Janelle Smith, spokeswoman for the Boise-based National Interagency Fire Center, which dispatches firefighters and equipment nationwide.
Despite the outlook, federal and state agencies plan to mobilize roughly the same number of firefighters, planes and engines as last year.
The state Department of Forestry is preparing for an active wildfire season, said John Boro, a manager with the agency’s fire program.
“I don’t necessarily say the sky is falling yet,” he said. “Our obligation is to plan for that above-normal fire season.”
Boro has seen some ominous signs. Before recent rains, controlled burns and small grass fires began to creep away into surrounding brush, an example of how dry it has been. Also, crews that burn logging slash and set “prescribed fires” to clear brush have witnessed “total consumption on logs and large limbs” this spring, he said.
“It takes more than a week or two of periodic rain to make any effect on those large fuels,” Boro said.
Federal agencies will be able to draw on more than $1 billion in fire suppression funds this year – roughly the same amount as in 2004.
The federal government this summer plans to contract for use of seven P-3 air tankers, which dump loads of fire retardant. The fleet remains down from 2002, when the government canceled contracts to lease 33 air tankers after the National Transportation Safety Board raised safety questions.
The state forestry department will have its normal firefighting contingent in place, and between 280 and 300 private firefighting crews, each with 20 members, will be available for hire.
The state Department of Corrections also will provide more than 300 inmates to help battle blazes, and up to 7,400 Oregon National Guard soldiers and airmen will be available to pitch in if regular firefighting forces are depleted, Guard spokesman Capt. Mike Braibish said.