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Above: Oregon National Guard members received
the same basic training in wildland firefighting
as seasonal firefighters.
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Most of the 250 Oregon National Guard members still engaged on wildfires will be demobilized from wildfires by the end of this week. This is down from the peak of more than 700 who volunteered to help fight wildfires this summer. The troops added capacity to a wildland firefighting system stretched thin by an outbreak of wildfires up and down the Cascades from California to the Columbia Gorge. By early September, the number of Oregon National Guard troops deployed on wildfires was the largest deployed in decades, possibly the largest since 1987 when 1,250 Oregon National Guard troops served on wildfires.
ODF served a coordinating role, arranging for troops to get the same basic training as wildland firefighters. Guard members then helped at a number of fires, including the Horse Prairie Fire on lands protected by the Douglas Forest Protective Association, the High Cascades Complex, and the state’s largest wildfire this year – the Chetco Bar Fire in southwest Oregon.
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Above: Mopping up hot spots
on thousands of acres was an important role
filled by Oregon National Guard troops.
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With persistent wildfires on national forests burning hundreds of thousands of acres, Guard members work mopping up fire perimeters was invaluable. Their efforts helped ensure firelines remained secure. They also staffed control points on roads closed to non-firefighting vehicles.
Another valuable contribution was that of Oregon Army National Guard helicopters, which attacked wildfires from the air. Two Chinook CH-47 helicopters from Pendleton worked first on the Whitewater Fire in the Willamette National Forest east of Detroit, and later on the Chetco Bar Fire. They dropped enough water on wildfires – more than 1.3 million gallons – to fill two Olympic-sized swimming pools.
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ODF’s Marganne Allen was a liaison to the more than 150 Oregon National Guard troops assigned to the 16,436-acre Horse Prairie Fire. She says she was impressed with the commitment of the guard to their peacetime mission. “They injected so much energy and enthusiasm,” she says.
At left: Some of the more than 700 Oregon National Guard members who left families and jobs to volunteer on wildfires this summer.