ODF Fire Protection Chief assesses Oregon’s largest wildfire

ODF
Fire Protection Division Chief Doug Grafe has been at the Chetco Bar Fire
yesterday and today. The fire has burned 105,518 acres in Curry County, making
it the largest wildfire in Oregon so far this year. Grafe met with Coos
Forest Protective Association leaders, co-operators, forest landowners and
incident managers. Below is his assessment of the fire, which is the largest
wildfire so far this year in Oregon:

• The past
  four days on the fire have been highly productive as firefighters
  have turned from life-safety tactics during last week’s fire runs to
  aggressive fire suppression efforts. Direct attack efforts organized
  through the Coos Forest Protective Association (CFPA) and forest
  landowners on the head of the fire have been highly effective at checking
  the spread of the fire toward coastal communities. We have established
  over 14 miles of dozer lines thus far. Structure task forces have held
  their ground protecting homes against another potential run from this
  fire. Dozers and hand crews are pushing into Forest Service ground on the
  north and east flanks, building fire line as tight as possible to the fire
  perimeter as we move into more broken and difficult terrain. There is very
  challenging firefighting ahead of us but our emergency response
  coordination at all levels is aligned very well.  Approximately
  18,000 acres of ODF-protected lands through CFPA have burned on this fire,
  including private and Bureau of Land Management lands.