One of the hundreds of wildfires burning across Oregon have spurred a declared state of emergency while the state navigates the COVID-19 pandemic.
There are currently 591 active fires burning in Oregon, according to data from the Department of Forestry on Monday. That number is still below the nearly 600 wildfires reported in 2013 and almost 500 in 2015.
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown invoked the Emergency Conflagration Act on Wednesday in response to the Mosier Creek Fire in the Columbia River Gorge.
The emergency measure directs the Oregon Office of State Fire Marshal to provide resources for local crews battling the wildfire. The governor may invoke measure once officials decide whether a fire is beyond the means of local firefighters to solve.
Visiting the site of the Mosier Creek Fire on Monday, Brown urged the public to remain vigilant.
“Know your campfire rules if you’re operating machinery when it’s hot and dry and we’re talking 100 degrees, please be really careful,” Brown said.
Brown may declare a state of emergency under Oregon law Chapter 401, giving her complete authority over all state agencies and the right to exercise, within the area designated in the proclamation, all police powers vested in the state by the Oregon Constitution.
A Willamette University professor mused earlier this spring whether Brown’s emergency orders, including those related to the COVID-19 pandemic, should be subject to an expiration date in the absence of proven justification.
Oregon Revised Statute 401 was passed in 1949 and names “general emergencies.” In 2007, the legislature passed ORS 433, which makes clearer reference to public health emergencies.
On Tuesday, the Oregon Department of Forestry reported the Mosier Creek fire has burned 985 acres and is now 75 percent contained since it began on August 12 in the state’s rural Wasco County. Its cause is being investigated.
More than 500 homes remain under evacuation, and the fire threatens more than 650 total structures.
It has destroyed 36 buildings and damaged one. The state’s phased “Ready, Set, Go!” evacuation orders now stand at Phase 2, or “Set.” No casualties have been reported.
Chief Deputy Oregon Fire Marshal Mariana Reese Temple said that fire crews are social distancing and wear masks when in close quarters contact with one another per Brown’s health orders. Fire camps are restricted to personnel only and each fire crew will have a health liaison and two EMTs monitoring for COVD-19 cases, Temple said.
Doug Graf, chief of fire protection for the Oregon Department of Forestry, has said coming days may bring more heat and more challenging conditions for firefighters.
“The last 48 hours of lightning conditions across the state have ignited well over 100 fires,” Graf said. “Initial attack resources have been aggressive and successful on most of those fires. The next 48 hours of lightning potential and high winds will continue to threaten and push the existing containment lines and put more fire on the landscape.”
Meanwhile, evacuations in Bend due to the Juniper Ridge Fire have been lifted. Officials said the fire was caused by a motor home’s engine exhaust igniting local brush.
The lightning-caused Neals Hill fire about 20-25 miles southeast of Princeton has burned nearly 3,400 acres and is 95 percent contained while the Crane Fire near Lakeview has burned 1,900 acres.
Another wildfire in Malheur County grew to over 5,000 acres over the weekend by Tuesday and has become the state’s largest fire hazard. Nine aircraft dropped were deployed to slow the fire’s spread on Sunday. The fire’s cause is under investigation.
Malheur County saw its reopening phase rolled back just last week by Brown in light of it reporting a three-week test rate average of 27 percent positive.
A 2018 report from the National Park Service found that roughly 85 percent of wildfires in the U.S. are caused by people.
A report last year from the Governor’s Council on Wildfire Response estimated that the state could see costs of up to $10 billion to wildfires in the next 20 years. The state already spent $533 million fighting wildfires in 2018 alone, the report said.
