Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Appeal tribune. (Silverton, Or.) 1999-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 1, 2021)
SILVERTONAPPEAL.COM Changes Continued from Page 1A The extra help that evening may have saved lives and prevented homes and businesses from burning down, said Han- ley, who was so impressed by the response that he later emailed the state fire marshal and local state legislators to thank them. New state money – and priorities – im- plemented after last summer’s historic and devastating Labor Day fires made the quick response possible. In January, Oregon lawmakers had giv- en the state fire marshal’s office $4 million to prepare for the 2021 fire season, specifi- cally to have more engines and crews at the ready when forecasted conditions are prone to fire starts. Lawmakers also passed a slate of laws. Hanley said the legislative changes have been “remarkable.” “The legislation that has occurred in the last couple of years in California, and now in Oregon, is the most I’ve seen in 45 years,” he said. “There is a greater understanding,” said Hanley. “But there’s also an educa- tion process for our elected officials and decision-makers. Because what you see on CNN, and when it occurs to you, in your own backyard, your view changes dra- matically.” The 2020 Labor Day wildfires torched Oregon, from Lincoln City to the Warm Springs Reservation, burning about 1,500 square miles. According to state esti- mates, they destroyed 5,000 homes and businesses. The Santiam Canyon east of Salem and Southern Oregon were hit par- ticularly hard, but fires in the Mount Hood National Forest and in Washington Coun- ty also impacted the Portland metro area. The fires made more Oregonians, par- ticularly on the verdant west side of the Cascades, far more aware of the dangers of wildfire. Oregon always has had a wild- fire season, but the flames typically stayed in the mountains or forested areas, rarely threatening or burning into urban corridors. That all changed last Labor Day. “I’ve been doing this in one fashion or another for 22 seasons,” said Brent Olson, Battalion Chief with Clackamas Fire Dis- trict No. 1. “And while I’ve seen fire move like that, I’ve never seen fire move like that here.” Nearly a year after fires sprinted fast and hot across a million acres of Oregon, that awareness has been shaped into pol- icy. The ripple effects are being felt in even the smallest of ways: the fire chief in Sweet Home was asked to speak at the lo- cal Rotary Club, and the Albany Fire De- partment’s risk reduction specialist has, for the first time in her six years at the de- partment, visited homeowners to teach them ways to protect their properties against wildfires. A new single-engine air tanker, bought with state funds, has scooped water out of the Columbia River to fight fires. Hikers can once again make their way around Olallie Lake near Mount Jefferson after a new fire crew from Clackamas cleared the access road. And new state liaisons have been stationed in key regions of the state to help local emergency managers prepare and respond to wildfires and other emer- gencies. The Labor Day fires also pushed law- makers to create a new state agency solely to deal with emergencies, and in the com- ing years, is expected to separate the state fire marshal’s office from the state police. What’s different a year later? If the same intensity of fires were to happen this Labor Day, some things would be different: There would be more engines and firefighters positioned around the state to jump quickly on fires as they start, and the Forestry Depart- ment would have more seasonal firefight- ers on hand to battle blazes. Still, in the midst of the 2021 fire sea- son, Oregon’s firefighting resources are spread thin. The Bull Complex of fires burning north of Detroit, for example, ini- The Detroit Market is seen sustaining damage due to wildfires on Friday, Sept. 25, 2020 in Detroit, Oregon. ABIGAIL DOLLINS / STATESMAN JOURNAL tially had a smaller crew on hand than other large fires because so many fires were burning across the West. Other changes are still in the works. For instance, a measure to split the state’s emergency management office out of the Oregon Military Department and into its own agency won’t go into effect until sum- mer 2022. And it’s not yet clear whether some fix- es will address problems the fires made clear. Last year, inconsistent – or nonexis- tent – evacuation alerts meant some resi- dents fled from fires at the last minute. In some Santiam Canyon communities, sheriff’s deputies went door to door to alert people they needed to leave. One Mill City woman told the Statesman Journal she’d not been notified of any need to evacuate and had woken up that night only because she heard people yelling in the street. While lawmakers and state officials tout a new emergency alert system as a major change, how effective the new sys- tem is remains to be seen. Oregon is experiencing longer fire sea- sons and drier summers. Last year’s blazes made clear that wildfires are a statewide problem, said Sandy Roberts, public information officer and risk reduc- tion specialist for the Albany Fire Depart- ment. The state had become “overly depen- dent” on Western Oregon fire depart- ments to provide strike and task forces to help out when fires on the east side got bad, said State Rep. Paul Evans, D-Mon- mouth, who chairs a policy committee on emergency management. Last year, those west side agencies “were in their own backyards putting out wildfires,” Evans said. “For those in the field of emergency management, we know that there were holes and that we were basically trying to get by with baling wire and tin cans,” Ev- ans said. “The wildfires last year opened everybody’s eyes.” Fire seasons are starting earlier and go- ing later. Emergency dollars allocated by the Legislature already have been used to boost seasonal firefighting forces at the state Forestry Department. The state’s Forestry Department has gotten more money to extend the amount of time its seasonal firefighters work. The agency also has hired 40 more seasonal firefighters, increasing its ranks to 519. In late March, the emergency money the Legislature passed proved useful. Those dollars meant the Forestry Depart- ment could send its firefighters to fight a fire north of Bend, said the agency’s fire protection chief, Doug Grafe. “Without the seasonal capacity early, we wouldn’t have had that response,” Grafe said. Part of the state’s more proactive ap- proach to fires includes that pre-position- ing that helped at the fire near the Talent truck stop in July. To understand the con- cept, think of a beginner swimming class, Hanley says. And then picture the follow- ing scenarios: h Scenario 1, no lifeguards are on duty – so if someone has a problem, you have to send for help. h Scenario 2, there are a dozen life- guards on duty. Pre-positioning is like Scenario 2, where there are a dozen lifeguards at the pool, ready to jump in at a moment’s no- tice. “If 10 fire engines were parked within two miles of where the Almeda Fire start- LOCAL ADVISORS Salem Area Caitlin Davis CFP® Chip Hutchings www.edwardjones.com Member SIPC FINANCIAL ADVISOR FINANCIAL ADVISOR West | 503-585-1464 Lancaster | 503-585-4689 Jeff Davis Tim Sparks FINANCIAL ADVISOR FINANCIAL ADVISOR Mission | 503-363-0445 Commercial | 503-370-6159 Garry Falor CFP® Tyson Wooters FINANCIAL ADVISOR FINANCIAL ADVISOR West | 503-588-5426 South | 503-362-5439 Keizer Area Mario Montiel ed, it may have made a difference,” Hanley said of the fire that tore through commu- nities in Southern Oregon last September. “It may have made a difference be- cause that’s 10 more engines that would have arrived within minutes of the fire starting,” Hanley said. “Hard to say with the big winds and how dry it was, but it certainly wouldn’t have hurt.” Some local departments also have hired more people in the wake of the La- bor Day fires; Clackamas Fire set up a new 20-person crew that splits its time fight- ing fires and helping with efforts to recov- er from the 2020 fires, like clearing debris. A $1.7 million grant from the U.S. Depart- ment of Labor is helping pay for the recov- ery side of that crew’s work. Lawmakers also laid the groundwork to hire the state’s next generation of fire- fighters, voting toward the end of session to send $6 million to three local fire de- partments for firefighter apprenticeship programs – in Jackson County, Eugene and Clackamas. Through Senate Bill 762, lawmakers created a new program, the Wildfire Workforce Corps, which will em- ploy youth and young adults in projects reducing the risk of wildfire in areas where homes and other buildings are in or near forests. Wildfire policymaking Evans compares the process of state policymaking on fire to turning a battle- ship. Since January, lawmakers have passed emergency funding and legislation that turned the ship about 70 or 80 degrees of the 90 degrees it needs to go, he said. SB 762, which was lawmakers’ main propos- al to address wildfires, puts the state on a 5- to 10-year track, he said. “Most people, in terms of wildfire, thought wildfires were something that were like a toothache,” Evans said. “They appeared every now and then, weren’t a systemic level of concern. (We) had gotten used to a time, admittedly a long period of time, where wildfires were relatively con- trollable when and if they popped up.” The Labor Day wildfires prompted a measure to understand the risk of fire statewide. SB 762 includes a requirement that the Forestry Department map areas of the state that are most prone to fire. That map will drive where the state pri- oritizes spending money to reduce fuels – essentially, vegetation that can catch fire – to make Oregon communities more “re- silient and resistant” to wildfires, state Forestry Department officials said. Under the new law, the state fire mar- shal must set minimum requirements for “defensible space” – essentially, methods to slow the intensity and speed of fire near homes and other buildings – in populated HAR OR K W D | WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 2021 New emergency alert system After the fires, many Oregonians told lawmakers they hadn’t been notified through official means of the fires sweep- ing through the Santiam Canyon and other areas of the state. In Jackson County, “people complained bitterly afterward because they had no or little notification of what was happening in their neighborhoods,” said Rep. Pam Marsh, D-Ashland. This summer, after getting $1.4 million in emergency funds to buy a new system last October, the state rolled out a new emer- gency alert system called OR-Alert. While officials say the new system is a major positive change from last year, it’s not yet clear whether the system will make up for last year’s failures. Many of the protocols around how to use the system are still being hammered out. At the end of the day, many decisions will still be made on the local level. The new system is best thought of as a “tool” to allow local officials to send out sev- eral kinds of alerts, including geographical- ly-based alerts called Wireless Emergency Alerts that don’t rely on users to opt in, An- drea Chiapella, a spokeswoman for Ore- gon’s Department of Administrative Ser- vices, said in an email. “OR-Alert can and does work if the pow- er is out to a location,” Chiapella said. The different types of alerts the new system can issue “all have their own re- quirements” to go through successfully, she said. With the new OR-Alert system, the person sending out the alert can check whether the alerts have been received. When asked whether someone visiting from another state and camping in an area threatened by fire would be notified if they needed to evacuate or prepare to evacuate, the state’s emergency manager, Andrew Phelps, didn’t answer directly. He said that decision, about when to is- sue alerts and what type of alerts, is left to counties, which in Oregon have the author- See CHANGES, Page 4A EEN SO EASY • 24.8 Gross HP, † 3-Cylinder Kubota Diesel Engine • 4WD • Hydrostatic Transmission (HST) • Performance-Matched Implements Available w/ LA525 Loader BX2380 w/ LA344 Loader • 21.6 Gross HP, † 3-Cylinder Kubota Diesel Engine • 4WD with Rear Differential Lock Standard • Performance-Matched Implements Available U35-4R1A • 24.8 Gross HP † Kubota Diesel Engine • Deluxe Interior • Wider Entrance • Tight Tail Swing • Deluxe Suspension Seat OES ® MCMINNVILLE 2700 ST. JOSEPH RD. MCMINNVILLE, OR (503) 435-2700 Oregon Equipment Sales 3A areas at risk of fire. The deadline for the fire marshal to establish those require- ments: Dec. 31, 2022. “As we have the weather and fire be- havior patterns with California creep up into Oregon,” said Rep. Dacia Grayber, D- Tigard, who also is a firefighter, “we really need to be thinking proactively about how we protect structures, how we anticipate what’s coming and how we share that in- formation.” A state advisory committee is just start- ing to work out the mapping project’s spe- cifics. Its meetings are public and you can access a schedule here: https://www.ore- gon.gov/odf/board/Pages/rac.aspx ER B V E N S HA L2501HST | OES ® AURORA 19658 HWY. 99 E. HUBBARD, OR (971) 216-0111 800-653-2216 • www.orequipmentsales.com STORE HOURS: Mon–Fri: 8–5 • Sat: 8–Noon FULL SERVICE SHOPS WITH MOBILE CAPABILITIES! $0 DOWN, 0% A.P.R. FINANCING FOR UP TO FINANCIAL ADVISOR Keizer | 503-393-8166 Surrounding Area Bridgette Justis Tim Yount FINANCIAL ADVISOR FINANCIAL ADVISOR Sublimity | 503-769-3180 Silverton | 503-873-2454 Kelly Denney 84 MONTHS * ON SELECT NEW KUBOTAS *© Kubota Tractor Corporation, 2021. Offer valid for residents within states of CA, AZ, NV, UT, WY, ID, OR, MT and WA only. $0 Down, 0% A.P.R. financing for up to 84 months on purchases of select new Kubota L, L60 and LX Series equipment from participating dealers’ in-stock inventory is available to qualified purchasers through Kubota Credit Corporation, U.S.A.; subject to credit approval. Some exceptions apply. Example: 84 monthly payments of $11.90 per $1,000 Financed. Offer expires 12/31/21. Terms subject to change. This material is for descriptive purposes only. Kubota disclaims all representations and warranties, express or implied, or any liability from the use of this material. For complete warranty, disclaimer, safety, incentive offer and product information, consult your local Dealer or go to KubotaUSA.com/offers. † For complete warranty, safety and product information, consult your local Kubota dealer and the product operator’s manual. Power (HP/KW) and other specifications are based on various standards or recommended practices. K1091-04-145829-13 FINANCIAL ADVISOR Dallas | 503-623-2146 OR-GCI0555203-01