Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley visited the Cedar Creek Fire
\nIncident Command Center Friday.<\/p>\n
Merkley noted that Labor Day, 2020 reset Oregonian\u2019s
\nunderstanding of wildfires. He spoke after touring the wildland firefighting
\nheadquarters in Dexter, saying, \u201cI\u2019m really struck compared to a couple years
\nago at the continuously enhanced level of equipment and organization for these
\ncamps. I guess it\u2019s a reflection of how many big fires we\u2019ve had that the
\nlogistics seem to get more and more developed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Merkley said wildfire smoke is an increasing concern. The
\nDemocrat said he\u2019s working on several bills to mitigate the effects of smoke,
\ntwo of which have had committee hearings. Merkley recently joined with Montana
\nRepublican Senator Steve Daines to introduce a bill that would expand training
\nfor the next generation of firefighters through Civilian Conservation Center
\nJob Corps programs.<\/p>\n
The next several days of weather look favorable for
\nfirefighters on the Cedar Creek fire. But cloud cover has kept infrared
\nequipment from seeing the current shape of the burn.<\/p>\n
At the incident command center in Dexter, Operations Chief
\nJames Osborne told KLCC that looking only at acreage and containment numbers
\ncan be confusing. \u201cIt\u2019s a really challenging landscape,” he said.
\n“None of the ridges or the roads, or any sort of those features that we
\nwould normally tie together, actually line up. That being said, we on this fire
\nare really looking at meeting objectives in terms of managing and hitting that
\ncontainment percentage. That doesn\u2019t reflect in our standard system, if you
\nwill.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Osborne said people should not think that \u201czero percent
\ncontainment\u201d means the fire is out of control. He said they focus on protecting
\npopulation centers like Oakridge and Westfir, as well as recreational and
\nnatural resource areas. He said people should expect to see acreage numbers go
\nup in the next few days, but that containment levels will increase over time.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley visited the Cedar Creek Fire Incident Command Center Friday. Merkley noted that Labor Day, 2020 reset Oregonian\u2019s understanding of wildfires. He spoke after touring the wildland firefighting headquarters in Dexter, saying, \u201cI\u2019m really struck compared to a couple years ago at the continuously enhanced level of equipment and organization for these […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1974","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-in-the-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n