July 22, 2002
National Guard troops to join firefighters
PAISLEY, ORE. - Touching down from a helicopter tour of fires across Oregon, Gov. John Kitzhaber urged Congress to boost its commitment to preventing future blazes in the nation's forests.
"This is as much a war as the war we are fighting in Afghanistan,' Kitzhaber said at Paisley High School, which houses 814 firefighters hoping to contain the 31,500-acre Winter Fire in the Summer Lake Basin of south central Oregon.
"Congress has got to put in a permanent appropriation to keep resources coming" for National Fire Plan prevention programs, he said, calling for thinning forests of combustible material.
Kitzhaber touched down in this high desert town just as 250 National Guard troops from the 82nd Armored Cavalry based in Redmond were setting up their tents for mop-up operations.
"This is why I joined the Guard, helping people out when they need help," said Cpl. Thomas Reasons, 25, a grocery store manager who left his wife and two sons back in Sweet Home.
Billeting in cots standing just 12 inches apart underneath olive drab canopies, the troops were assigned to extinguish smoking stumps and hot spots around houses that stand surrounded by black ash on the narrow corridor along Oregon Highway 31 between Winter Ridge and Summer Lake, where the fire burned hot last week.
"We do want to make sure the fire is out around those houses," said Oregon Department of Forestry spokesman Tom Berglund. Assigning the National Guard to mop up "puts our more seasoned firefighters more into the heat of battle."
In Paisley, Kitzhaber met privately with horse rancher Dan Napier, who lost a hay barn, shop and chicken coop to the flames. Napier believes precious time was lost in launching the firefighting effort as the U.S. Forest Service and Oregon Department of Forestry argued over who should take responsibility.
Deputy Incident Commander Danny Benson said he knew of no such delays, adding that the Forest Service and Department of Forestry in the Lakeview region enjoy a good working relationship.
At an earlier stop in the southwestern Oregon rural community of Ruch, Kitzhaber praised homeowners who prepared for fire by clearing brush, thinning timber, and replacing shake roofs with noncombustible materials. In part because of those preparations, none of the 215 homes in Ruch were evacuated in the face of the Squires Peak Fire.
Kitzhaber said these fires show the need for Congress to boost resources for making forests throughout the West healthier and more resistant to fire.
"This isn't due to lighting strikes," Kitzhaber said. Instead, the fires are the result of unhealthy forests that need thinning and prescribed burns to return to their natural state, which is less susceptible to wildfire.
"This is a huge problem. Unless you make the forests healthy, you're going to face this risk every summer," Kitzhaber said.
As he flew in a Blackhawk helicopter over the Squires Fire to the Upper Applegate Grange Hall near Ruch, he noted that areas where there had been commercial thinning only suffered mild damage from ground fires. He said the forests that were loaded with combustibles suffered major crown fires.
Environmentalists have opposed some thinning projects where the Forest Service planned to cut big trees, which are best able to survive fire, or damage fish and wildlife habitat.
"As you know, I am pretty Green and I get whacked over the head for that sometimes, but the fact is burning down a forest doesn't help fish habitat," said Kitzhaber, who has sided with the environmentalists on some issues.
Homeowner Matt Epstein blamed threats of legal action by environmentalists for keeping forest agencies from doing the proper thinning, saying that steps taken by homeowners on their own property are not enough.
"If you were dealing with 1,000 acres nearby that haven't been thinned," Epstein said, "then you're just throwing pebbles in the ocean."
(Copyright 2002 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
