Free Republic

National Guard troops mop up Winter Fire to free experienced crews By JEFF BARNARD The Associated Press PAISLEY, Ore. (AP) -- Their cots lined up 12 inches apart, and olive drab tents tautly pitched in a grassy field, National Guard troops tossed footballs, listened to rock and roll and called home on cell phones as they waited to join the battle against forest fires burning across Oregon. Fresh from training after being called up by Gov. John Kitzhaber, 250 members of the 82nd Armored Cavalry out of Redmond were scheduled to begin mopping up hot spots and smoking stumps in...

National Guard troops to join firefighters By BRAD CAIN The Associated Press 7/22/02 7:37 PM PAISLEY, Ore. (AP) -- 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...

More crews arriving as flames keep spreading By JOHN ENDERS, The Associated Press, 7/18/02 4:08 AM SISTERS, Ore. (AP) -- Firefighters from several states are on their way to Oregon. And just in time: there are plenty of fires here for them to fight. Ten Oregon crews that were fighting fires in other Western states will be returning home by the weekend. Joining them will be firefighters from Alaska, California, Florida, Idaho, Minnesota, Missouri, Oklahoma and Tennessee, fire officials said late Wednesday. And, on July 29, a battalion from an Army base in Kansas will be arriving in Oregon. Crews...