Good news on Ore Fire

FINN ROCK: People had a chance to hear some good news during last Saturday’s briefing on the Ore Fire at the McKenzie High gymnasium. Oscar Vargas, along with Jason Boehm, is one of the fire’s two incident commanders. Both gave the local community high marks for the welcome area residents have received.

Vargas outlined his team’s approach as “being safe and being smart” while efforts are underway to either “put fires out or keeping them small.” He also provided some insight into current ways of utilizing drones both night and day to do a lot of the backfiring to keep fires small.

Boehm said the team’s focus was the “get the incident down to a manageable incident that we can turn over to local units to finish things out.” He felt optimistic that the outcome was on track, noting that the team had already handed management of the Slate Fire to locals and felt that the same could soon happen here.

Vargas earlier commented on the overall impacts of the 2024 season, saying “The West Coast is on fire from California all the way to the Canadian border.” Despite a year that saw “some exceptional records being broken, he said that current efforts to successfully control the Ore Fire “would not have been possible without the right decisions that were made early on.”