JACKSON COUNTY, Ore. — Oregon U.S. Senator, Ron Wyden, held a special news conference Saturday morning to discuss the “unprecedented threat of big fires everywhere in the west.”
Wyden said he is working closely with the White House and forest service to make sure the state is prepared for fires now and in the future.
He said multiple big fires at the same time are a real threat this summer and he wants to make sure there are enough firefighters.
He said the forest service thinks it would cost about $20-billion to thin the acres of hazardous fuel in the state.
What the public can do to make sure we get through this summer, is to be good “citizen watchdogs.”
“When they see any sign, for example, dropped matches or people near hazardous fuels, burns in their neighborhoods, these kinds of things … really important thing for people to do is not take but a minute in calling the local fire officials,” Wyden said.
Wyden is spending part of the weekend visiting cooling centers in Portland to assess the situation there.
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