March 26, 2025
The Oregon Department of Forestry (ODF) filled an order today to send 11 additional firefighters to North Carolina to support their suppression efforts. This would make the total number of ODF firefighters in North Carolina 37, not including two agency representatives.
The 11 firefighters being deployed include: five from ODF’s Southwest Oregon District, two from the Central Oregon District, two from the Northeast Oregon District and two from the Forest Grove District.
Firefighters are anticipated to be on assignment for 14 days.
Background: Over the weekend of March 21, the Oregon Department of Forestry filled a resource order to send 26 firefighters to North Carolina via a state-to-state mutual aid agreement. That initial group arrived in North Carolina on Sunday, March 23.
With increased fire activity in the state, North Carolina has requested more help and in response the Oregon Department of Forestry is able to send 11 more firefighters.
When: The firefighters will depart from their respective airport tomorrow morning. Airports may vary depending on where the firefighters are based in Oregon.
March 24, 2025
SALEM, Ore. – Over the weekend, the Oregon Department of Forestry (ODF) filled an order to send 26 firefighters and two agency representatives to North Carolina to assist in fighting numerous wildfires in the state. Many of the firefighters arrived in the state yesterday, March 23, and are assigned to the Black Cove incident in western North Carolina.
The two-week rotation with our North Carolina partners is our chance to return the favor. In 2024, North Carolina sent almost a whole incident management team along with several overhead positions in support of Oregon. The added capacity allowed some resource flexibility to ODF in a time when people and equipment were limited.
“Being able to have an additional incident management team (IMT) made it so we did not have to make the hard choice of prioritizing one fire over another,” said Blake Ellis, Fire Operations Manager. “At the time, we had two fires in need of an IMT and only one ODF team available. We were able to fill both incidents’ needs due to the extra support from our North Carolina partners.”
The firefighters were sent to North Carolina under mutual assistance agreements between the two states. When wildfire activity is low in Oregon, firefighters can be spared to help in places experiencing high levels of wildfire.
Oregon can and has called on its out-of-state partners to send resources when wildfire here exceeded our local and state capacity, most recently in 2024 when ODF received firefighters and equipment from about 21 states, provinces and territories.
“These agreements help bolster the complete and coordinated fire protection system and create a cache of reciprocal resources for all of us to call on when needed,” Michael Curran, ODF’s Fire Protection Division Chief, said.
So why does Oregon send resources to help other states? Through these mutual assistance agreements with other states, including Alaska, Hawaii and NW Canadian territories, we can share resources with one another, creating a larger, faster comprehensive fire management system.
“Know that we don’t share these resources without appropriate vetting. Before committing to any out-of-state deployment, we make sure that our own fire management system is still adequately staffed and ready to respond to fires here in Oregon. Serving Oregonians is our first and primary priority,” said Curran.
March 19, 2025
Salem, Ore. – After nearly five years of information collection and analysis, the Oregon Department of Forestry has completed the 2020 Santiam Canyon Wildfire Event investigation report. The Santiam Canyon Wildfire Event is one of 18 fire events that took place over Labor Day week of 2020.
“We recognize the trauma that many Oregonians experienced during the Labor Day Fires, which is why the department is dedicated to making sure these investigations, and every investigation, are thorough and a complete picture of what happened.” Kyle Williams, Deputy of Fire Operations, said.
The Santiam Canyon Wildfire Event is comprised of 19 reports of fire located within the protection boundaries of ODF’s North Cascade District. Seven of which were caused by down powerlines but determined to not contribute to the spread of large fires in the Santiam Canyon. The seven ignitions were suppressed by residents and/or other fire personnel.
The remaining 12 reports of fire were determined to be caused by embers from the Beachie Creek Fire. The Oregon Department of Forestry did not investigate the Beachie Creek Fire because the U.S. Forest Service has jurisdiction over the fire.
There is no evidence of other causes of the fire spread within the Santiam Canyon.
“These types of investigations are rare for the agency.” said Levi Hopkins, Deputy Chief of Policy and Planning for ODF’s Protection Division. “Investigations of this complexity put extreme strain on the agency, past and present, and unfortunately it took longer than even we expected.”
Five investigators, internal to the department and contracted by ODF, were tasked with investigating all known and reported ignitions in the Santiam Canyon within ODF’s North Cascade District jurisdiction with the goal of creating impartial and objective determinations. The investigation team reviewed thousands of pages of documentation, written statements and conducted over 180 interviews with witnesses.
The department recognizes that this has been a long-anticipated report and that there are still several other reports from the 2020 Labor Day Fires that the public would like to see. The remaining reports are currently undergoing cost collection litigation to recoup firefighting costs and reduce financial impacts on taxpayers.
“The scale of work that these investigators were tasked with was massive.” Michael Curran, Protection Division Chief, said, “Cause and origin scene work, large numbers of witness interviews, collection and examination of potential physical evidence, review of extensive documentation and utilization of experts for 19 individual reports of fire requires meticulous organization and attention to detail.”
Starting Labor Day 2020, an extreme east-wind event resulted in the Oregon Department of Forestry suppressing several major wildfires that burned over a million acres from Southwest Oregon up to Northwest Oregon. The department is statutorily required to investigate every fire that ignited on ODF-protected lands and therefore the department investigated roughly 18 large incidents in Oregon that resulted from this one event.
ODF cannot divulge the particulars of ongoing investigations or litigation. ODF’s investigation is designed to objectively determine if someone is liable for a fire on ODF protected land to recoup fire suppression costs. The Oregon Department of Forestry is statutorily obligated to recoup costs in order to reduce the economic impact of a wildfire on Oregon taxpayers.
To learn more, visit the ODF investigations page.
If you would like a copy of the investigation report, please submit a public records request.
