Garner Complex meeting gives residents assurance

WIMER, Ore. — Fire officials held a meeting on Tuesday in Wimer to update residents on their efforts for containing the Garner Creek fire.

Officials say the Garner Complex is the highest priority fire in the nation and officials are doing everything they can to control the fires.

Some of the resources that they’ve called in are the National Guard, air tankers from Canada as well as structural resources across the state. The personnel for the fire is over 2000 people.

“We couldn’t deal with complex issues like this is there wasn’t a whole bunch of people working together,” Joe Hessel, Oregon Department of Forestry, said.

Queens Creek residents Rita Christy and her husband have a whole farm of animals. They’re neighborhood is currently level one evacuation but they came to the meeting today to find out if they need to be prepared for a level two before it happens.

“I’m concerned about how quickly is the fire going, how many acres is it going per hour, per day,” Christy said. “I just want some kind of measurement to guide when we’ll be a level two.”

Although the fire has grown over 17,000 acres, officials are confident that with the amount of resources they have, they can slowly start to control the flames

“I feel better today and like I said, everyday I get a little more comfortable,” John Pellissier, ODF, said.

In addition to informing residents, officials made sure to thank the people who are out fighting the flames as well as the community for continuing to support the fire crews.

“I want to give a special shout out to the local folks, when we role into the community, it’s really the local people that we work with that help us be successful,” Hessel said.