WHITE CITY, Ore. — Fire season in southwest Oregon could come at any time in the next few days or weeks. The Oregon Department of Forestry is gearing up to make sure they’re prepared.
“Right now all the fuels that we have, most of them are green and just starting to make that turn,” Natalie Weber, public information officer with ODF said. “The grasses that we have in this area we call are 10-hour fuels and that means after 10-hours of rain or moisture of any kind, that’s when the fuels will start to dry out,” she said.
Weber said the conditions are just part of how ODF determines when to declare fire season in Jackson and Josephine counties.
“When we had those hot days, a lot of people were asking us to go into fire season, but we work with the national weather service and we knew that front was coming and that’s why we delayed it a little bit,” Weber said. “We knew that we were going to get the moisture that we really needed and we did.”
Weber said late Tuesday afternoon, three lightning strikes hit ODF and U.S. Forest Service protected lands locally but no fires broke out.
“We’re hoping to see a little bit more rain but at this point, we’re getting closer to fire season and it’s a decision that’s going to come down in the next couple days,” Weber said.
ODF said there is typically less fire starts in June. If a fire does happen, fire district resources are available to respond.
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