Fire season set 45-year record

BOISE – The 2006 wildfire season has set a 45-year high in the number of acres burned, but flames have mainly charred sparsely populated desert ranges and the loss of life on the fire lines is down from previous years.

Wednesday’s running total compiled by the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise showed 8,693,994 acres, or 13,584 square miles, burned by 81,881 fires this year. That’s just above last year’s record of 8,686,753 acres, or 13,573 square miles for the year. Reliable records of wildfire acreage were not kept prior to 1960, officials say.

While this year’s burn will set a record and is well above the 10-year average of 4.9 million acres, the season overall is not considered unusual by federal firefighting officials.

“On paper, it may be the worst in almost 50 years, but we have to keep ahold of the context that there was tremendous fire activity in January and February in Oklahoma and Texas, something we seldom have,” said Rose Davis of the national fire control center. “The acres are certainly the largest we’ve had in a few decades, but it’s basically been a normal, active fire season.”

And it may almost be over. A cold front was moving into the Pacific Northwest on Wednesday that should drop temperatures 20 to 30 degrees across Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana by the weekend and bring snow to mountains above 6,000 feet elevation. Forecasters said a second system will follow it early next week.

“I don’t know if this is going to be a season-ending event, but it’s definitely going to allow fire crews to make some headway,” said Miriam Rorig, a research meteorologist with the Pacific Wildlands Fire Sciences Laboratory in Seattle. “Lightning traditionally drops off in September so we would also expect to see fewer starts.”

Davis said 15 wildland firefighters, including private contractors, have died this year, significantly fewer deaths than past years. The NIFC lists 30 killed in 2003 and 20 in 2004.

The worst single incident was a helicopter crash Aug. 13 in Idaho that killed three Payette National Forest firefighters and their pilot.

The Interior Department and the U.S. Forest Service have spent about $1.25 billion fighting the fires since the fiscal 2006 year that began last Oct. 1. The Forest Service projects it will be $150 million over budget for firefighting expenses by the end of this month.