Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley visited the Cedar Creek Fire Incident Command Center Friday.
Merkley noted that Labor Day, 2020 reset Oregonian’s understanding of wildfires. He spoke after touring the wildland firefighting headquarters in Dexter, saying, “I’m really struck compared to a couple years ago at the continuously enhanced level of equipment and organization for these camps. I guess it’s a reflection of how many big fires we’ve had that the logistics seem to get more and more developed.”
Merkley said wildfire smoke is an increasing concern. The Democrat said he’s working on several bills to mitigate the effects of smoke, two of which have had committee hearings. Merkley recently joined with Montana Republican Senator Steve Daines to introduce a bill that would expand training for the next generation of firefighters through Civilian Conservation Center Job Corps programs.
The next several days of weather look favorable for firefighters on the Cedar Creek fire. But cloud cover has kept infrared equipment from seeing the current shape of the burn.
At the incident command center in Dexter, Operations Chief James Osborne told KLCC that looking only at acreage and containment numbers can be confusing. “It’s a really challenging landscape," he said. "None of the ridges or the roads, or any sort of those features that we would normally tie together, actually line up. That being said, we on this fire are really looking at meeting objectives in terms of managing and hitting that containment percentage. That doesn’t reflect in our standard system, if you will.”
Osborne said people should not think that “zero percent containment” means the fire is out of control. He said they focus on protecting population centers like Oakridge and Westfir, as well as recreational and natural resource areas. He said people should expect to see acreage numbers go up in the next few days, but that containment levels will increase over time.
