WALDPORT – For the first time in three years, Central Oregon Coast Fire & Rescue added a two-man crew to a Lincoln/Tillamook county firefighting task force rushing to help fight a 10,000-acre wildfire in Wasco County.
On Tuesday, Gov. Kate Brown invoked the state’s Emergency Conflagration Act in response to the Miller Road fire burning near Maupin, declaring an immediate threat to “life, safety and property” in the area. The fire started Tuesday afternoon near the community of Juniper Flats and grew from 2,000 to 10,000 acres Wednesday. The Wasco County Sheriff’s Office has issued evacuation orders for some residents near the blaze and informed others to be ready to go on short notice.
The conflagration act allows the governor to make more state resources available to firefighters at the front line, as well as coordinate the responses of the State Fire Marshal and separate county fire departments.
Central Oregon Coast and North Lincoln Fire & Rescue are joining with personnel and equipment from the Nehalem and Garabaldi departments to send six pieces of equipment and firefighters to the blaze. Central Oregon Coast is sending two firefighters and its brush engine; North Lincoln is sending a brush engine and a water tender. The task force is being led by Tom Jackson of the Depoe Bay Fire Department.
Central Oregon Coast was able to join the task force because it now is full-staffed with six firefighters and has two other temporary firefighters helping this summer through a state fire marshal’s grant.
COCF&R firefighters deployed are Cody Johnson and John Townley. Chief Jamie Mason said he has adjusted schedules for other staff to have them work 72 hours a week — three days on and three days off — rather than the usual two days on, four days off schedule while the two firefighters are gone.
The Lincoln/Tillamook county task force was demobiled Friday and Johnson and Townley returned that evening.
If fire departments have staffing available, joining state conflagration requests can make them money in addition to giving personnel experience in fighting wildfires. The state Fire Marshal’s Office pays the salaries and overtime for responding personnel, pays overtime for firefighters who fill their vacant shifts, and pays mileage and other costs for deployed equipment.
Five other county task forces are responding to the conflagration deployment request, including teams from Polk, Lane, Columbia and Hood River counties in Oregon and Klickitat County in Washington.
