This has been a record setting year for wildfires in Oregon, and fire officials say it’s the new norm. Kyle Williams, director of forest protection for the Oregon Department of Forestry, said he thought this was going to be an average year for wildfires, until the heat wave.
“And it took our fuel conditions from what we hoped were about average and sent them to a place in early July that were setting new records in terms of fire danger and potential,” Williams said.
Then, dry lightning storms hit, causing over 61-hundred lightning strikes and several fires. Oregon State Fire Marshal Mariana Ruiz-Temple recently told a legislative committee that hotter summers mean more fire danger in the future.
“This is probably going to be our normal season, it is not going away. It is the one natural hazard we can actually mitigate is wildfire, and if we know that and plan for that it puts us in a better position for future fire seasons.”
Ruiz-Temple said positioning structural task forces in parts of the state before storms hit allowed for a faster response. And, buying additional fire vehicles and additional funding for structural firefighters increased resources.
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